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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





EVANGELISM | 


IN THE ~Lowrcn 


SUNDAY SCHOOL 


By 
E. B. CHAPPELL, D.D. 


C. A. BOWEN, D.D., General Editor 





NASHVILLE, TENN. 
COKESBURY PRESS 


EVANGELISM IN THESUNDAY 
SCHOOL. COPYRIGHT, MCMXXV 
BY LAMAR & WHITMORE 


All rights reserved, including that of translation 
into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian 


SET UP, ELECTROTYPED, PRINTED, AND 
BOUND AT NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


2 ET ET A Sn ee a A Se SE TES 


B 


DEDICATION 





TO MY DEAR FRIENDS AND LONG-TIME 
FELLOW WORKERS 


DR. CHARLES D, BULLA 


AND 


DR. JOHN W. SHACKFORD 


TO WHOSE COUNSEL AND COOPERATION 
I AM LARGELY INDEBTED FOR WHATEVER SUCCESS 
1 HAVE ATTAINED IN MY EFFORTS TO 
MAKE THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS OF 
THE METHODIsT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH, 
REALLY EFFECTIVE EVANGELISTIC 
AGENCIES, THIS VOLUME IS 


AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 





CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I 


PaGE 
WHAT 1S: EVANGELISM? fo.(2 4. date saee Stats ses alvin a MA Oe 
CHAPTER II 
Wuat Is EVANGELISM (CONTINUED)?...... area k Caeser tai ae 
CHAPTER III 
E-VANGELISTIC; AGENCIES: oc). cs cteldiniens giles AONE RH MIR carn i 
CHAPTER IV 
EVANGELISTIC METHODS................ DU e es ciate sey eee eee 
CHAPTER V 
EVANGELISTIC METHODS (CONTINUED).......... seater atatavarete 67 
CHAPTER VI 
ECA RE VR RIL DEOOD ooo hie os weiner ae oe Sees carsales 84 
CHAPTER VII 
DATERECHILDHOOD G2 cere tiaciaie ols sled outatereteteres Siewale eer aan ave 
CHAPTER VIII 
EARLY AND MIDDLE ADOLESCENCE......... area eis oie Atal stele 119 
CHAPTER IX 
EARLY AND MIDDLE ADOLESCENCE (CONTINUED)..... Ai Nae ke 


7 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


CHAPTER X 

PAGE 

VOuUNG PROPLE AND ADULTS? i coueeees cece eh sears sca 154 
CHAPTER XI 

Sprcrat SEASONS OF EVANGELISM..;),...cc2+0sccccesvcses 172 


CHAPTER XII 
A COOPERATIVE TASK (O35) coche eee ae eee eea dee ee 192 


CHAPTER I 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM? 


THE first requisite for the successful prosecution of 
any task is that the worker shall have a clear under- 
standing of what he is seeking to accomplish. One is 
not likely to land at a given destination who simply 
starts out traveling without any definite idea as to the 
locality of the place to which he wishes to go or the 
way by which he is to reach it. And the Sunday school 
teacher is not likely to prove an effective evangelist who 
has hazy or erroneous notions as to what evangelism 
is. Let us, therefore, begin our studies by endeavoring 
to come to an understanding as to what we mean by 
evangelism. 


I. ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE WorD “EVANGELISM’”’ 


No Greek equivalent of the word ‘‘evangelism”’ is 
found in the New Testament. Three kindred words are 
found, however, which it may be worth while for us to 
study. These kindred words are: 

1. The noun evangelion, the original meaning of 
which was simply “good news.”’ In the New Testa- 
ment it meant at first the good news that in the person 
of Jesus of Nazareth the long-expected Messiah had 
at last appeared and was about to establish his kingdom 
on the earth. Later it came to comprehend all that the 
Christ meant for the individual and for the world. 
The English word by which it is translated in the King 

9 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


James Version is “‘gospel,’’ derived from two Anglo- 
Saxon words, one meaning ‘‘good”’ and the other ‘‘a 
story.” 

2. The verb evangelizein, generally used asa deponent 
middle either with or without an object. Used in the 
former way it means to proclaim something as good 
news, as when Jesus says, “‘I must preach the kingdom 
of God to other cities also’’ (Luke 4: 43), and when 
it is said of the early disciples at Jerusalem, ‘‘They 
ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ’’ (Acts 
5: 42). Literally the former means ‘‘I must proclaim 
as good news the kingdom of God to other cities also,”’ 
and the latter ‘‘they ceased not to proclaim as good 
news Jesus as the Christ.” 

Used without an object, the word simply means to 
proclaim the good news as interpreted in the preceding 
paragraph. 

3. The noun evangelistes, which in our common 
English versions is not translated at all, but is simply 
brought over in Anglicized form. It means literally 
‘a bringer of good tidings.’”’ The word is used three 
times in the New Testament: In Acts 21: 8, where 
Philip is spoken of as “‘the evangelist’’; in Ephesians 
4: 11, where evangelists are included among the recog- 
nized officials of the apostolic Church and are distin- 
guished from apostles, prophets, and pastor-teachers; 
and in Second Timothy 4: 5, where St. Paul exhorts 
Timothy to ‘‘do the work of an evangelist.” 

Our information in regard to the mission of the New 
Testament evangelist is derived mainly from what we 
know about the work of Philip and of Timothy. The 

10 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





little that is told us about the work of Philip (see Acts 
8: 5-40) reminds us rather strikingly of the work of the 
modern evangelist. Indeed, it is often assumed that 
he conducted a series of religious services in Samaria 
and perhaps in other places very closely resembling 
the ‘‘revival’’ meetings conducted by modern evangel- 
ists. The assumption, however, is only partially cor- 
rect. Perhaps the main features of resemblance be- 
tween the work of Philip and that of the man whom 
we speak of as an evangelist are that Philip had no 
fixed field of labor and that his primary aim was to win 
unbelievers to faith in Christ rather than to instruct 
and edify believers. It is quite clear, however, that 
the missions of both Philip and Timothy were primarily 
to those who had not heard the gospel before. In 
other words, they were missionaries rather than evangel- 
ists as we now understand the term. 

It is evident from this study that the derivation of 
the word ‘‘evangelism’”’ furnishes only a slight clue as 
to its significance in current usage. Literally it means 
the act of proclaiming the good news, and it is some- 
times used in this sense, as, for instance, when we speak 
of evangelizing the world in a single generation. Such 
an expression cannot, of course, mean that we expect 
really to make the world Christian in a single genera- 
tion. Indeed, we have never yet succeeded in making 
any single nation on the face of the earth more than 
partially Christian. All we can possibly intend, there- 
fore, when we use the words ‘“‘evangelism”’ and ‘“‘evan- 
gelize’’ in this way, is to call the Church seriously to 
undertake the task of immediately proclaiming the 

11 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


good news throughout all the world and of establishing 
Christianity as a vital working force in every nation. 
When, however, we speak of evangelism in the Sunday 
school, it is clear that we have in mind something much 
deeper and more far-reaching than merely telling peo- 
ple about Christ. Evangelism, in other words, as the 
term is here employed, implies very much more than 
the term itself, considered in the light of its derivation, 
would suggest. 


II. THE MIssION OF THE CHURCH 


Perhaps a better way of approach is to begin with 
a brief study of the mission of the Church and how it 
is to be accomplished. 

1. The mission of the Church is to build up the 
kingdom of God until it shall attain final and complete 
triumph. “After this manner therefore pray ye: Thy 
kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so 
on earth.” In these words our Lord reveals to us the 
ultimate purpose of his Church, and in praying this 
prayer we commit ourselves to his program and pledge 
ourselves to become coworkers with him in carrying 
it out. 

2. The kingdom of God is a social order, a great 
brotherhood over which God is recognized as Father 
King and in which social relations are regulated by 
the law of love. But no program of social reconstruc- 
tion can succeed that does not begin with the individual. 
A brotherhood must be composed of brotherly men. A 
society in which the will of God is done must be made 
up of people whose inner lives are in harmony with God 

12 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


and who seek increasingly to understand what the will 
of God is. No social covenants or legal arrangements, 
either national or international, can secure peace, 
justice, and codperation so long as men are selfish and 
unbrotherly. 

3. Hence, while the ultimate aim of the Church is 
the establishment of a world-wide Christian social 
order, its immediate and fundamental task is the mak- 
ing of Christlike men and women. 

In our insistence upon the social aspect of the mis- 
sion of Jesus we must not overlook the fact that it was 
also a mission to individuals. ‘‘I came,”’ he said, ‘‘ that 
they may have life and may have it abundantly”’ 
(John 10: 10). A fine commentary on what the abun- 
dant life of which our Lord speaks is may be found in 
one of St. Paul’s great prayers: 

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom 
every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would 
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be 
strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end 
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to 
apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length 
and heighth and and depth, and to know the love of Christ which 
passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of 
God. (Eph. 3: 14-19.) 

Another passage from the writings of the same 
apostle furnishes a striking picture of the way in which 
this inner spiritual life may be expected to express 
itself in social relations. Indeed, a fitting title for the 
paragraph would be ‘‘The Christian in His Social 
Relations.”’ 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; 
cleave to that which is good. In love of the brethren be tenderly 
affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another; 
in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; 
rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing steadfastly 
in prayer; communicating to the necessities of the saints; given 
to hospitality. Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse 
not. Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep. 
Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not your mind 
on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly. Be not 
wise in your own conceits. Render to no man evil for evil. 
Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men. If 
it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. 
Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath 
of God; for it is written, Vengeance belongeth to me; I will 
recompense, saith the Lord. But if thine enemy hunger, feed 
him; if he thirst, give him to drink; for in so doing thou shalt 
heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but 
overcome evil with good. (Rom. 12: 9-21.) 


A society composed of men and women possessing 
the qualities of life which these passages describe would 
speedily find ways of solving all the more serious of its 
perplexing social problems. To raise up such men and 


women, therefore, is the primary business of the 
Church. 


III. MATERIAL OuT oF WHICH THE KINGDOM Is To BE 
BUILT 


The material out of which citizens of the kingdom 
are to be made is that which is found in our common 
human nature with its mingled assortment of capacities 
and limitations. 

1. That man is endowed with moral and religious 
capacity there can be no question. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


(1) So he is represented throughout the Bible. 
We are told that in the beginning he was created in the 
image of God, and this evidently refers not to his body, 
but to his real self, the self that thinks and loves and 
recognizes the supremacy of moral law. That this 
likeness, though marred, has not been destroyed by the 
fact of sin is witnessed by the oft-repeated moral and 
religious appeals which God makes to men in the Bible. 
For these appeals are without meaning except upon the 
assumption that there is something in man answering 
to the divine call to worship and to obedience to the 
moral law. Take, by way of illustration, the oft- 
quoted invitation found in Revelation 22: 17: ‘‘The 
Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that 
heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life free- 
ly.” Such words would be mere mockery if addressed 
to a being destitute of moral and spiritual capacity or 
of ability to respond to the gracious invitation. 

(2) And this teaching of the Bible is confirmed by 
the whole course of human history. For the pages which 
record the story of man are not altogether black. On 
the contrary, gleams of light as if from heaven often 
irradiate them; for they tell of a ceaseless search for 
truth, for God, for spiritual emancipation, and of 
unnumbered deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice for 
love’s sake and for conscience’ sake. The Psalmist 
gives utterance to a yearning that is as old as the human 
heart when he says: 


As the hart panteth after the water brooks, 
So panteth my soul after thee, O God. 


15 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


And Tennyson puts into words what millions of souls 
of all lands and ages have felt when he makes Sir 
Galahad sing: 


I yearn to breathe the airs of heaven 
That often meet me here. 

I muse on joy that will not cease, 
Pure spaces clothed in living beams, 

Pure lilies of eternal peace, 
Whose odors haunt my dreams. 


Such longings after God and such visions of spiritual 
beauty are perhaps far from being universal, but that 
they have been felt by multitudes of elect men and 
women in all lands and all ages there can be no ques- 
tion. 

2. This, however, is only one side of the story. 
There is another side that is dark and sinister of aspect. 

(1) The Bible opens with the majestic account of 
man’s creation in the likeness of God. But after this 
comes the story of his disobedience and fall, and then 
follows an endless record of selfishness and greed and 
lust and cruelty, of moral struggles ending in defeat 
and longings after moral triurnph ending in disappoint- 
ment. Perhaps the most striking picture of the inner 
aspect of this age-long conflict is found in St. Paul’s 
account of his own experience in Romans 7: 15-25a. 
For the sake of vividness I use Weymouth’s transla- 
tion: 

For what I do, I do not recognize as my own action. What I 
desire to do is not what I do, but what I am averse to is what I 


do. But if I do that which I do not desire to do, I admit the 
excellence of the law, and now it is no longer I that do these 


16 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





things, but the sin which has its home within me does them. 
For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has 
its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the 
power to carry it out is not. For what I do is not the good thing 
that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do is 
what I constantly do. But if I do that which I desire not to do, 
it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin which 
has its home within me does it. I find therefore the law of my 
nature to be that when I desire to do what is right evil is lying in 
ambush for me. For in my inmost self all my sympathy is with 
the law of God; but I discover within me a different law at war 
with the law of my understanding, and leading me captive to 
the law which is everywhere at work in my body—the law of sin. 
(Unhappy man that I am! who will rescue me from this death- 
burdened body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord!). 

(2) This pathetic description of the futile inner strug- 
gle of the great apostle is typical of universal human 
experience. The literature of the world is full of it— 
moral aspiration on the one side and on the other the 
humiliating sense of sin and failure. Tennyson makes 
cne of his characters cry out in passionate longing: 


And O for a man to arise in me, 
That the man I am may cease to be! 


And Whittier makes his sad confession in stanzas that 
find an echo in every earnest heart: 


More than your schoolmen teach, within 
Myself, alas! I know, 
Too deep ye cannot paint the sin, 
Too small the merit show. 
I bow my forehead in the dust, 
I veil mine eyes with shame, 
And urge, in trembling self-distrust, 
A prayer without a claim. 


17 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


The Biblical explanation of all this is that man is 
the victim of an evil inheritance, and that, as a con- 
sequence, the tendency in every one of us to go astray 
is so strong that he finds himself constantly unable to 
do the good which he would and constantly practicing 
the evil which he would not. 


IV. THE SECRET OF SPIRITUAL TRIUMPH 


The Bible is at one with universal human experience 
in its teaching in regard to man’s evil inheritance and 
moral impotence. It is unique, however, in the fact 
that it offers a remedy and points out a way of escape. 
It will be observed that St. Paul’s account of his own 
ineffectual struggle quoted above ends with an exclama- 
tion of thanksgiving for deliverance. He had at length 
found the secret of victory over his lower self which 
he had hitherto sought in vain. 

1. When we come to inquire what was the secret 
of this marvelous emancipation, we find that the 
apostle attributes it to the power of the indwelling 
Christ. ‘It is no longer I that live,’’ he declares, 
“but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). Tothe Roman 
he writes, ‘‘If Christ is in you, the body is dead because 
of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”’ 
(Rom. 8:10), and in his message to the Colossian Chris- 
tians he uses the significant expression, ‘‘Christ in you, 
the hope of glory’’ (Col. 1: 27). The same thought 
appears in Hebrew 3: 14 (‘‘ For we are become partakers 
of Christ’’) and in Second Peter 1: 4 (‘‘He hath granted 
unto us his precious and exceeding great promises, 
that through these ye may become partakers of the 

18 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


divine nature’’). And Jesus himself had already 
revealed the possibility of such an experience. In 
John 17: 23 he speaks of being zm his disciples, and 
in John 6: 54 he says, ‘‘He that eateth my flesh and 
drinketh my blood hath eternal life.” ‘‘Flesh’’ and 
‘‘blood,’’ as the words are here used, are the symbols 
of life. To eat his flesh and drink his blood, therefore, 
is to become a partaker of his life. Hence he immediate- 
ly adds, ‘‘He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
blood abideth in me and I in him.’’ (John 6: 56.) 
The entire passage is to be interpreted, not literally, 
but mystically and spiritually. 

For an individual to become a partaker of the life 
of Christ so that he can say ‘‘Christ liveth in me”’ is 
to be ‘“‘born anew”’ in accordance with the word of Jesus 
to Nicodemus in John 3:3. The fact that Jesus speaks 
of the Holy Spirit as the agent in this process of spirit- 
ual quickening need not trouble us. The Godhead is 
not divided either in essence or action. Where the 
Father is there the Son is, and where the Son is there 
the Holy Spirit is, and where the Holy Spirit is there 
the Father and the Son are. When Jesus was about 
to go away he said to his bewildered disciples: ‘‘I will 
not leave you desolate; I will come unto you.”’ (John 
14:18.) But a little farther on in the same conversa- 
tion he speaks of sending the Holy Spirit to bear wit- 
ness of him. That is, in the person of the Holy Spirit 
he would come unto them and ‘abide with them al- 
ways.” Indeed, so absolute is the divine unity that 
we find St. Paul declaring that ‘‘The Lord is the Spirit”’ 
(2 Cor. 3: 17), and in Romans 8: 8-10 he speaks almost 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





in the same breath of the indwelling Spirit and the 
indwelling Christ as if they amounted to the same thing: 
“‘And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 
But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be 
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. And if Christ is 
in you, the body is dead because of sin.” 

2. The sum of it all is that through the indwelling 
life of God our higher natures may be so quickened and 
recruited that we become new creatures in Christ Jesus, 
walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit. All 
deeply spiritual men have testified to the reality of this 
mystical experience and have found purification and 
emancipation through the incoming and indwelling of 
the divine Spirit. ‘‘All the glory and beauty of Christ,” 
says Thomas 4 Kempis, ‘‘are manifested within, and 
there he delights to dwell.’’ John Wesley defines re- 
ligion as ‘‘the life of God in the soul of man.”’ The best 
possession of the human soul,”’ declares Bishop Warren 
A. Candler, ‘‘is the indwelling Christ.” 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. What light do the derivation and literal meaning of the 
word ‘‘evangelism” throw on its meaning in present usage? 

2. What further light do we get from a study of the mission 
of the Church? 

3. Show that the gospel message is both individual and social 
and explain why it is so. 

4. Wherein lies the secret of spiritual triumph? 


20 


CHAPTER II 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM (CONTINUED)? 


THE discussion in the preceding chapter ended with 
the statement that the power by which we are cleansed 
and quickened and enabled to live the triumphant life 
is the power of the indwelling Christ. This at once 
suggests the inquiry as to how we are to come into the 
possession of this transforming power. 


I. SACRAMENTARIANISM, LEGALISM, AND INTELLEC- 
TUALISM 


1. There are many who hold that it is communicated 
by a process that is akin to magic. This is the funda- 
mental implication of all theories that make regenera- 
tion dependent upon some rite performed in some 
particular way by a properly accredited ecclesiastical 
agent. The priest administers the sacramental ordi- 
nance in the manner prescribed and pronounces the 
sacred formula in the name of the Holy Trinity, and 
forthwith the miracle is accomplished, the soul of the 
subject is cleansed from sin and he passes out of death 
into life. Such an assumption is contrary to reason as 
well as to the cardinal teachings of the New Testament 
and has no rightful place in Christianity. 

2. There are others who think of spiritual life as 
mechanically imparted as a result of conformity with 
certain legalistic requirements or of the intellectual 
acceptance of certain credal statements. There are 

21 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





wide divergencies of opinion among those maintaining 
these views as to what observances and beliefs are re- 
quired, but they agree in interpreting religion in terms 
either of legalism or intellectualism; and the positions 
which they hold, whether they realize it or not, neces- 
sarily involve the assumption that spiritual life may be 
arbitrarily and mechanically communicated. 

These are precisely the errors into which the Phari- 
sees of our Lord’s day had fallen. They were literalists 
and legalists, putting the main emphasis in their re- 
ligion upon the correctness of their opinions and their 
strict conformity to the letter of the ceremonial law. 
But Jesus pronounced them mere actors, and compared 
them to ‘‘whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear 
beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones 
and of all uncleanness.’”’ (Matt. 23: 27.) And there 
is a negative as well as a positive lesson in the parable of 
the Good Samaritan, which clearly implies that there 
is no essential connection between credal affirmations 
and legalistic observances and the purification of the 
inner life. 

The first serious controversy in the Christian Church, 
as we learn from a study of the Acts and the Epistle 
to the Galatians, was over this very matter. (See Acts 
15: 1-29 and Galatians 2.) An influential faction of 
Jewish Christians maintained that, in order to be saved, 
one must observe the entire Mosaic ritual, and insisted, 
therefore, that it was necessary that Gentile converts 
should be circumcised. This contention St. Paul 
opposed with all the might of his inspired genius, and 
it was through his influence that the Church was saved 

22 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


from becoming a Jewish sect, bound in the fetters of a 
mere mechanical legalism. 

We escape all the errors mentioned above when we 
come to think of salvation in terms of positive moral 
and spiritual attainment by free personal agents and 
of religion as a means through which free agents are 
enabled to achieve Christlike character and fit them- 
selves for Christlike service. There is a deep sense in 
which salvation is the free gift of God. He gave his 
only-begotten Son for our redemption, and the benefits 
of his sacrificial death and his triumphant life are offered 
to all without money and without price. But these 
benefits cannot be arbitrarily bestowed. Spiritual life 
is not a semimaterial something which exists apart from 
personality; it is rather a quality of personality and 
can be communicated and received only by vital 
processes that are in accord with the laws which condi- 
tion the life of free personal agents. God is a person, 
and we are persons created in his likeness, and all of 
his dealings with us must be in harmony with the laws 
governing the relations of free personal beings. 


II. RELIGION AS A PERSONAL RELATION 


These considerations suggest the secret of all spiritual 
attainment. The soul is cleansed and quickened by 
the birth from above, the gift of divine life through the 
Holy Spirit, and we come into the possession of this 
gift through an immediate personal relation with God. 

1. That such a relation is possible is one of the most 
precious assurances given to us in the Bible. ‘Enoch 
walked with God.’ Abraham ‘was called the friend 

23 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


of God.’ ‘‘Jehovah spake unto Moses face to face, 
as a man speaketh unto his friend.” The prophets 
communed with God and reported to the world the 
messages they had received in fellowship with him. 
In his last conversation with his disciples before his 
crucifixion Jesus said unto them, ‘‘ No longer do I call 
you servants, . . . but I have called you friends.” 
(John 15: 15.) In the apostolic benediction which we 
so often hear St. Paul teaches us to pray for “the com- 
munion of the Holy Spirit’’—that is, that the conscious 
presence of the Holy Spirit may be shared by all. And 
St. John, in his First Epistle, says: “‘Our fellowship 
is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” 

Nor is this a privilege which was granted only to a 
few rare souls selected out of the Hebrew race, but a 
privilege offered freely to every member of the human 
family who will fulfill the conditions of friendship. 
In a strikingly beautiful passage found in Revelation 
3: 20 Jesus is represented as saying: ‘‘ Behold, I stand 
at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and 
open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with 
him, and he with me.”” Supping together in the ancient 
oriental home was a sign and pledge of friendship. 
What our Lord is here saying in substance, therefore, 
is: “‘I am always seeking to establish relations of per- 
sonal fellowship and friendship with every man and 
woman and child, always seeking access to every human 
heart.”” Those who seek to become his friends cannot 
fail, since he is ceaselessly seeking to become the Friend 
of every one. 

2. It is through such a personal relation as is implied 

24 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


in real friendship that God is enabled to impart his 
life unto us. Jesus said to his disciples, ‘‘I am the vine, 
ye are the branches.” (John 15: 5.) The connection 
between the branch and the vine is not mechanical, 
but vital, and through this vital connection the life of 
the vine flows into the branch. So is the life of Christ 
communicated unto us when we come into a vital rela- 
tion with him. Hence he tells his disciples that if they 
abide in him he will abide in them, and that, as a con- 
sequence of this union, they will bear much fruit. 

3. The only thing that can vitally unite person with 
person is faith, a twofold bond of trust and love. St. 
Paul speaks of it as “faith working through love.” 
There are persons whom we pass frequently without 
being in the least influenced by them, because our rela- 
tion to them is purely external. We never come in 
contact with their souls, their real selves. So we are 
always in the presence of God. ‘In him we live and 
move and have our being.”” And yet God cannot in 
the richest and fullest sense communicate his life unto 
us until through faith we come into a relation of vital 
personal fellowship with him. Faith, therefore, is not 
an arbitrarily established condition of salvation, but 
a condition that grows out of the fundamental nature 
of personality. It is God’s only way of vital access to 
free moral agents and therefore the only medium 
through which his saving grace may become efficacious 
for them. (Eph. 2: 8.) 

4. It should be observed, however, that the faith 
that saves is not the intellectual acceptance of a creed, 
but loving trust in and self-committal to a Person. 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


It is the duty of the Christian to seek by prayerful 
study, by fellowship with the risen Lord, and by fidelity 
in doing the will of the Father in heaven to rid himself 
of erroneous opinions and to widen and deepen his 
understanding of all that is involved in the personality 
and teaching and work of Christ. But one who is not 
a Christian cannot afford to postpone beginning the 
Christian life until one has worked out what one re- 
gards as an adequate system of theological beliefs. 
The correct order is precisely the reverse of this— 
namely, for the seeker to begin by submitting himself 
to God as he is revealed in Jesus and then by the process 
suggested above to develop a rich and vital Christian 
creed. Of course one must know something about 
Christ before any intelligent committal to him can 
take place, but, as a rule, the beginning of the new life 
is the spontaneous emotional response of the soul to 
the appeal of Christ’s personality, rather than the 
acceptance of a system of doctrine as the result of an 
elaborate process of investigation and reasoning. 

When Saul surrendered to Christ on the Damascus 
road it is probable that all he knew about the earthly 
life of Christ was what he had picked up from current 
rumor and what he had learned through contact with 
Stephen and from hearing Stephen’s dying message. 
He had before him, therefore, only a mere outline of 
the Master’s work and personality, but that was enough 
to destroy his Pharisaic complacency and fill his soul 
with profound unrest and unutterable longings. And 
“‘when it pleased God to reveal his Son in him’”’ through 
the light that shone upon him out of the heavens and 

26 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


the voice of yearning compassion that spoke to him, 
forthwith his heart surrendered, and he became at once 
and forever the bondslave of Christ. ‘The heart,” says 
Pascal, ‘‘has reasons of its own.’’ In the realm of the 
spiritual it goes before the natural reason and shows it 
the way. So it was in St. Paul’s case. It was after his 
conversion that he went into retirement in Arabia to 
think out the meaning of this new and marvelous 
experience. 

5. It should be remembered, however, in considering 
the intellectual compulsion under which St. Paul found 
himself to give a rational account of his new allegiance 
and his new experience, that he was a man of remark- 
able intellectual ability. The average man is under no 
such compulsion. His heart surrenders to the appeal 
of the personality of Christ, he finds in Christ the satis- 
faction of his spiritual longings, and, like Thomas, he 
cries out in adoration, ‘‘My Lord and my God!”’ But 
when it comes to metaphysical discussions in regard 
to the person of Christ and to theological discussions 
in regard to the work of Christ, his interest ceases. 
Such matters are beyond the range of his comprehen- 
sion, and all his efforts to think them through simply 
end in confusion. 

Doctor Chalmers, one of the great Scotch preachers 
of the nineteenth century, tells the following story: A 
plain woman came before the session of a certain Church 
to be examined for admission to Church membership. 
The dignified elders asked her a number of questions 
which she was unable to answer, and it soon became 
apparent that the decision would probably be against 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


her. She was profoundly disappointed, and, looking 
at them out of tear-dimmed eyes, she sobbed out: 
“T can’t explain him, but I’d die for him.” 

There are millions of Christians like that. They 
know Christ as a personal Saviour and follow him with 
adoring love; but when it comes to explaining him, they 
are as much at a loss as they would be if called upon 
to explain the chemical process by which the light and 
warmth of the sun waken the dormant life of the vege- 
table world in springtime and cause the seed to spring 
up and grow and blossom in beauty and bring forth fruit. 

And it is often true even in the case of men of broad 
culture and unusual intellectual ability that the begin- 
ning of their allegiance to Christ is a matter of the 
surrender of the heart to his personality rather than a 
matter of reasoned conviction. 

In a volume of lectures by Doctor R. W. Dale en- 
titled ‘‘The Living Christ and the Four Gospels’’ 
there is a chapter on ‘‘The Divine Appeal of Christ to 
the Spirit of Man.’’ In this chapter the author tells 
about a conversation he had had a few years previous 
to the time of its writing with a Japanese Christian 
who was noted for the breadth and thoroughness of his 
scholarship as well as for the dignity and nobility of his 
character. In the course of their talk together Doctor 
Dale sought to find out from his Japanese friend how it 
was that he became a Christian. ‘‘I reminded him,” 
he says, “‘that he and his countrymen were wholly 
separated from the traditions of Christendom and from 
that unbroken line of historic continuity by which we 
ourselves are united to those who first received the 

28 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Christian gospel. I also reminded him that, although 
the thought and civilization of Western Christendom 
had recently been exerting an immense and revolu- 
tionary power in Japan, the Christian faith had not 
come to his people unchallenged; that in the foremost 
nations of Europe the historical trustworthiness of the 
story of Christ had been assailed by men of great emi- 
nence; and that, side by side with Christianity, there 
had come to the Japanese a varied and powerful litera- 
ture which impeaches its claim and calls upon Christian 
nations to surrender their faith as an illusion. I then 
asked him by what path he had reached his faith in the 
Lord Jesus Christ as Son of God and Saviour of men.”’ 

In reply his friend told how he had been brought upa 
Confucian, how Confucianism had failed to satisfy the 
deepest needs of his soul, how at length a Japanese 
convert to Christianity had given him a Chinese Bible 
and asked him to read it and how profoundly impressed 
he had been with such inspired messages as the thir- 
teenth chapter of Paul’s First Epistle to the Corin- 
thians. ‘‘And then,” he added, “‘I read the Gospel of 
John, and the words of Christ filled me with wonder. 
They were not to be resisted. I could not refuse him 
my faith.” 

Upon this testimony Doctor Dale comments as 
follows: ‘‘The vision of glory which came to him while 
reading John’s account of our Lord’s life and teaching 
was a vision from another and diviner world; he fell at 
the feet of Christ, exclaiming, ‘My Lord and my God’ 
. . . Hesaw the divine majesty and the divine grace 
of Christ: what could he do but worship him?” 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


III. THE FUNDAMENTAL AIM OF EVANGELISM 


The conclusions to which the preceding discussion 
leads us may be summarized as follows: 


1. Religion is fundamentally a matter of personal 
relation. It is friendship with God as he is revealed in 
Jesus Christ. Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘‘ Ye search 
the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have 
eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of 
me; and ye will not come unto me, that ye may have 
life.” (John 5: 39, 40.) Notice particularly the closing 
sentence in this statement, ‘Ye will not come unto me, 
that ye may have life,” the clear meaning of which is 
that Bible study is of no avail if it does not bring us 
into an immediate personal relation with Christ. 
Compare with this the following significant utterance 
in our Lord’s great intercessory prayer: ‘‘ This is life 
eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, 
and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.’ 
(John 17: 3.) Compare also this striking utterance of 
St. Paul in Philippians 3: 8, 9: “I count all things to be 
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and 
do count them but refuse, that I may win Christ and 
be found in him.”’ 

2. Since evangelism, as the word is used in these 
studies, is the process of making Christians, and since 
men are delivered from the dominion of the lower 
self and enabled to live as sons of God and citizens of 
his kingdom through union with Christ, the funda- 
mental aim in all of our evangelistic efforts should be 

30 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





to bring people of all ages, classes, and conditions into 
a vital personal relation with Christ. This conclusion 
is in complete harmony with the Great Commission, 
according to which the primary business of the Church 
is to make disciples. ‘‘ Disciple’’ literally means ‘‘learn- 
er.”’ Long before the time of Christ, however, it had 
come to be used in a semitechnical sense. A disciple 
was a person who had attached himself as pupil and 
intimate friend and companion to some master teacher 
in whose wisdom and goodness he thoroughly believed, 
his aim being not only to learn from the master’s lips, 
but also to come in ever-increasing measure under the 
ennobling influence of his personality. A Christian 
disciple, therefore, is one who has become thus related 
to Jesus Christ, the one absolutely supreme and 
authoritative Teacher and the one all-sufficient Friend 
‘‘whom to know aright is life eternal.’’ This means, of 
course, that discipleship as describing the Christian’s 
relation to Jesus stands for something much deeper 
and more vital than anything that can possibly be 
involved in the relation of a pupil to a mere human 
teacher. For it means absolute trust and absolute 
surrender to one whom we revere as Lord and Saviour. 
3. It should be observed, however, that the Great 
Commission does not stop short with the command to 
go and make disciples, but adds two other significant 
clauses, ‘“‘baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them 
to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you.” 
(Matt. 28: 19, 20.) Real friendship is never static. 
Friendship must either grow or decay. Every great 
31 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


friendship is the result of a process of growth. Friend- 
ship with God is no exception to this general rule. 
Hence St. Peter exhorts Christians to ‘‘grow ijn the 
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ.”” (2 Pet. 3: 18.) And St. Paul, even so late 
in his life as the time of his first imprisonment in Rome, 
still felt that his knowledge of Christ was as nothing 
compared with what yet remained to be learned. He 
writes as one who is just beginning to get a clear vision 
of what friendship with the Master really involves. 
Read Philippians 3: 7-14, and notice how he empha- 
sizes by repeating it again and again his longing to 
know Christ—to know him more intimately, more 
thoroughly, more vitally. 

In the Great Commission, therefore, our Lord lays 
upon his followers the duty, not only of making dis- 
ciples, but also of providing for them the conditions of 
a growing intimacy with him and a growing understand- 
ing of him and of increasing efficiency in service. To 
this end they are to see that every beginner in the Chris- 
tian life, by receiving the ordinance of baptism, openly 
declares his discipleship and becomes definitely affiliated 
with the Church which is the body of Christ. And then 
they are to proceed step by step to instruct him in the 
teachings of Christ and to train him in the practical 
applications of these teachings in everyday conduct. 

The evangelistic work of the Church, in other words, 
is not to cease when the individual whose salvation 
she is seeking has been led to enter upon the Christian 
_ life, but she is to continue to work with him and for him 
that she may lead him step by step toward the realiza- 

32 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


tion of the ideal of St. Paul, ‘‘a complete man of God, 
furnished completely unto every good work.”’ 

4, In thinking of the experience described in this 
and the preceding chapter, let us put the primary 
emphasis upon the positive aspects of it. Evil tenden- 
cies are not overcome by a mere process of repression, 
but by the quickening and development of the nobler 
capacities of the soul through friendship with God and 
through continuous normal exercise in the service of 
God. Children go wrong, in other words, not only 
because they are the victims of an evil inheritance, but 
also because they have not been brought into that rela- 
tion of loving fellowship with God which is the rightful 
heritage of every one of them and without which no 
moral being anywhere can come to fullness of spiritual 
life. The worst result of sin is that, by separating the 
sinner from God, it renders moral recovery impossible, 
and one of the supreme advantages that we find in 
dealing with childhood lies in the fact that no such 
positive alienation has taken place. There are both 
good and bad tendencies within him, but both are mere 
potentialities, the awakening and development of 
which depend upon the appeal of influences from with- 
out. It is the business of the home and the Church, 
therefore, to avail themselves of the opportunity thus 
offered to bring the child into living fellowship with God 
that his moral and spiritual capacities may be awakened 
and quickened by the Holy Spirit before the evil ten- 
dencies within him have been awakened and strength- 
ened through contact with the world and through actu- 
al transgression. 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. Explain the sacramentarian and legalistic views of regenera- 
tion and show why neither is tenable. 

2. What does the Bible teach in regard to the possibility of 
friendship with God? 

3. What is the result of such an immediate personal relation 
with God? 

4, Why is faith a necessary condition of salvation? 

5. What is the faith that saves? 

6. Explain what is meant by religion as a personal relation. 

7. Consider how the views here presented harmonize with the 
teaching of the Great Commission. 

8. When does the evangelistic process come to an end? 


34 


CHAPTER III 
EVANGELISTIC AGENCIES 


I. First STEPS IN EVANGELISM 


THE conclusion of our previous study was that the 
aim of evangelism is to bring individuals into a living 
fellowship through faith with Jesus Christ, and to 
provide the conditions of a growing knowledge of and 
friendship with Christ and increasing efficiency in the 
service of Christ. 

1. The initial step in this process must be the prepara- 
tion of the individual for receiving the revelation of 
Christ. For, as it was necessary to prepare the way 
for the Lord’s entrance upon his Messianic work, so 
it is necessary to prepare the way for his entrance into 
a human heart. The response which we desire to the 
appeal of Christ is at once a religious and an ethical 
response, and of course such response is possible only as 
the religious and moral nature is awakened. To bring, 
about such awakening, therefore, must be the first aim! 
in our evangelistic efforts. This, of course, means one 
thing in the case of the little child and quite another in 
the case of the adult who has fallen into sinful habits, 
but this is a matter for future consideration. 

2. Along with the preparation of heart and mind 
must go such a revelation of Christ as will beget within 
those whom we seek to save a living faith in Christ and 
will lead them to surrender their lives to him. I have 
already called attention to the fact that the beginning 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


of the Christian life is not a matter of accepting a set of 
theological opinions, but rather a matter of the spon- 
taneous surrender of the soul to the appeal of Christ’s 
personality and spirit and ideal. ‘‘In many cases,” 
says Doctor James Bissett Pratt, “‘getting converted 
is falling in love with Jesus.’”’ If ‘getting converted”’ 
is understood in the sense in which it is employed in 
common religious terminology, we should not be far 
wrong in saying that getting converted is always falling 
in love with Jesus. Recall once more the circumstances 
attending the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, noting the 
fact that it was not the result of his theology, but that 
his theology was rather the product of his Christian 
experience. It was by the revelation of the risen Christ 
that the heart of the bitter persecutor was subdued 
and made captive. 

And the only unique features connected with the 
case of Saul are its external attendants. The history 
of the Church, and especially the history of modern 
missions, furnishes innumerable instances of striking 
conversions brought about solely through the immediate 
appeal of the personality of Jesus. Recall the story 
told by Doctor Dale in regard to the conversion of an 
educated Japanese. 

The central aim in our evangelistic efforts, therefore, 
should be to win the hearts of those whom we seek to 
save through the revelation of Christ. 

3. It should be observed that the two processes 
described above—namely, the awakening of the re- 
ligious and moral nature and the revelation of Jesus 
Christ—are not to be thought of as things entirely 

36 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





independent of each other, but as largely coalescing 
with one another. That is, we do not first seek to 
awaken the religious and moral nature of the individual 
and then to make Christ known to him, but we seek 
progressively to make Christ known as an essential 
part of the process of bringing about the individual’s 
moral and religious awakening. In other words, we 
seek at the same time and through the same means to 
make him both religious and Christian. 


II. AGENCIES EMPLOYED IN EVANGELISM 


Let us now proceed to a consideration of the chief 
agencies that are to be employed in the process de- 
scribed above. 

1. The first of these both as to time and effectiveness 
is personality. 

(1) The beginning of the religious awakening of the 
little child, as a rule, is the result, not of formal re- 
ligious instruction, but of the influence of the spirit and 
attitude and acts of his mother. For, just as the child 
responds to the love or joy or sorrow written in the face 
of his mother or expressed in her bearing or in the tones 
of her voice, so he responds to the spirit of faith and 
reverence that shines out through her eyes and mani- 
fests itself in all sorts of subtle ways in her speech and 
conduct. 

(2) Nor does this influence of personality lose its 
potency as the child advances in years. Not for the 
young only, but for people of all ages and all degrees of 
culture Christlike character remains the most con- 
vincing and irresistible witness for Christ. It speaks 

37 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


directly to the soul in language that all but the desper- 
ately depraved can understand, and there is no arguing 
against it. 

A missionary was preaching to a group of natives in 
a remote Chinese village. As he was picturing the life 
of the Christ who came from heaven to tell men about 
the Father and save them from sin, his hearers began to 
cry out in the congregation that they knew him, that 
he had lived among them and taught them and been 
their personal friend and helper. The missionary 
tried to explain to them why they must be mistaken, 
but they still insisted that they had seen the great 
Friend and knew him. And, by way of convincing him 
that they were right, they took him at the close of the 
service to their cemetery and showed him a rude board 
upon which was written the name of a medical mission- 
ary who had lived in the village some years before. 
During his residence the town was visited by a terrible 
plague, and many fell victims to its deadly influence. 
All the wealthy families who could do so ran away, 
leaving the less fortunate to get along as best they 
could. But the medical missionary remained with 
them and comforted and served them until he too was 
smitten by the dreadful malady and carried away. 
And so, when they heard again the story of the loving, 
self-forgetting, serving Christ, recalling the life of this 
martyr friend, they said, ‘‘We have seen him.” And 
they were right, for through the words and deeds and 
personality of his heroic and devoted servant Jesus had 
really revealed himself unto them. 

A group of scientists were talking with each other 

38 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


about the agencies that had been most potent in leading 
them to accept the Christian faith. Finally one 
of them, who had been listening in silence to his com- 
panions, spoke in substance as follows: “Gentlemen, 
none of the things you have mentioned had anything 
to do with making me a Christian. I was convinced 
and led to accept Christ through the influence of my 
Christian wife. In her character I found a kind of 
evidence which I could neither answer nor withstand.”’ 

(3) That is the kind of witness which is always most 
needed. There is no other revelation of Christ that 
is so irresistibly convincing and so vitally effective as | 
the personality of one who lives the Christ life. Teach-° 
ers of religion may as well understand that they cannot 
create the kind of atmosphere of love and reverence 
that is needed for the awakening of the religious nature 
of the child unless they themselves are truly religious 
and that all their teaching about Christ will be of but 
small avail in making Christ real to their pupils unless 
they reflect in some measure the image of Christ. 

I read recently a bitter attack on Christianity by 
a man who tells us that his father was a Sunday school 
superintendent and his mother an active worker in the 
Woman’s Missionary Society, and that in his childhood 
he attended church and Sunday school and was often 
associated with preachers. But unfortunately he found 
in none of these any of the winsomeness and spiritual 
beauty of Christ. Instead, his father seems to have 
impressed him as a profane hypocrite, the missionary 
meetings as centers of neighborhood gossip, and the 
preachers as lacking in that kind of virility, sense of 

39 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





fair play, and spirit of comradeship which every normal 
boy admires. The story suggests its own lesson. 

One of the encouraging things connected with the 
work of the Church to-day is that teachers of religion 
are at last beginning to awaken to the fact that they 
cannot successfully discharge their responsibilities 
relating to the evangelization and religious develop- 
ment of the young without intelligent preparation. 
It is very important, however, that they do not forget 
that there is one essential part of this preparation 
which they can get only through intimate fellowship 
with God and faithful obedience to his will for us as 
revealed in Jesus. 

2. To the revelation through personality must be 
added interpretation through definite instruction. 

(1) The child must be told about the heavenly Father 
whom his parents and his teachers love and trust and 
obey and to whom he is indebted for all the precious 
gifts of life, and the ideal of Jesus must be progressively 
revealed to him through stories that are within the 
range of his comprehension and that are adapted to his 
life needs. Through teaching, in other words, the child 
must learn to see in the goodness and love which he 
finds in his parents and teachers a reflection of the good- 
ness and love of God, and his vague impressions must 
be transformed into definite convictions and a vital 
personal faith. 

(2) And what is true of the child is equally true of 
the adult who has not become a positive Christian. 
It is futile to call such an one to surrender to Christ 
until he knows something about who Christ is and to 

40 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





what manner of life he calls us. A beginning in such 
knowledge may be made through observing the life of 
a Christlike man or woman, but only a beginning. The 
picture thus drawn in vague and imperfect outline 
must be filled out through study of the life and teach- 
ings and works of the Master himself. 

(3) Christianity has from the beginning been a teach- | 
ing religion. Jesus himself was the supreme Teacher. | 
The title most commonly applied to him in the New 
Testament is ‘‘teacher.’”’ ‘“‘To this end,’ he says, 
“‘was I born and for this cause came I into the world, 
that I should bear witness unto the truth.” (John 
18: 37.) And when he commissioned and sent forth his 
disciples it was with the command that they should go 
and teach. Teaching is one of the great agencies, not 
only for spreading the evangel, but also for interpreting 
its deeper meanings and showing how it fits into the 
needs of individual life and how it affects our everyday 
duties and our social relations. 

(4) For the purpose of this study preaching may be 
regarded as a type of teaching. It differs from teaching, 
as usually understood, in that it is less systematic and 
more impassioned. Real preaching has in it somewhat 
of the prophetic element. That is, it is an authorita- 
tive proclamation of truth that has been immediately 
revealed to one’s own soul or verified in one’s own ex- 
perience. It becomes at once apparent, therefore, that 
all real preaching must also be teaching and that the 
most effective teaching must have in it some of the 
fervor growing out of the immediate vision and personal 
experience that characterize the best type of preaching. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


There is no difference as to aim between teaching and 
preaching. Both seek to influence the lives of in- 
dividuals by lifting up Christ before them and bringing 
home to them in a vital and convincing way the meaning 
of his mission and message. 

(5) It goes without saying that if teaching is to have 
a large and important place in the evangelistic work of 
the Church, it is her bounden duty to make the most 
thorough possible preparation for discharging her teach- 
ing ministry. 

She must expend whatever is required for equipment 
in the way of libraries, lesson material, and buildings, 
to the end that her teachers may be provided with 
favorable conditions and proper tools for their work. 

She must raise up an adequate force of prepared 
teachers. And by prepared teachers I mean those who 
know Christ, who know their Bibles, who know those 
to whom they are to minister, who know how to mediate 
unto them the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, and who are 
filled with an ardent evangelistic passion. 

And, as it is the imperative duty of the Church to 
equip herself for her great teaching task, so it is the duty 
of every Christian who is called to this sacred ministry 
to “give diligence to show himself approved unto God, 
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly 
dividing the word of truth.”” And by ‘rightly dividing 
the word of truth”’ I mean dividing it in such way that 
each may receive in due season the food that is adapted 
to his needs and that it may be served in such a way as 
effectively to meet these needs. 

3. Another agency in evangelism is atmosphere. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


By atmosphere I mean the general spirit which pervades 
a given group of people, a family, a Church, a communi- 
ty. It is not easy to define, but everybody recognizes 
its existence and is more or less cognizant of its in- 
fluence. 

You occasionally go into a home in which you discern 
at once the signs of order, cheerfulness, and reverence, 
and of mutual respect and consideration between all the 
members. Your whole nature responds at once to its 
stimulating and invigorating influence, and you in- 
stinctively say to yourself, ‘How fine and wholesome 
for boys and girls!’’ For you know that it is just the 
kind of place in which seeds of truth planted in the mind 
will spring up and grow and bear fruit. 

There are other homes into which you go in which 
the pervading spirit is quite the opposite of this. 
Instead of order, you find confusion; instead of rever- 
ence, shallow cynicism; and instead of mutual respect 
and consideration, either bickering or indifference. 
And, whatever may be the relation of the parents in 
such a home to the Church, or their attitude toward 
religion, you expect to find their children undisciplined, 
disrespectful toward their elders, and devoid of that 
reverence for God which is the beginning of wisdom. 

I recently read a story about some rare varieties of 
date trees that were imported from Africa a few years 
ago by the Government of the United States. The 
scientists who were in charge of these trees planted 
them first in a certain locality in California. While, 
however, they lived and grew after a fashion, they did 
not bear fruit. Then another locality was tried, but 

43 


eae ene 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





with the same result. Finally they were taken to the 
Coachella Valley, and the atmospheric conditions there 
proved to be just what they needed. They not only 
grew luxuriantly, but bore abundant fruit. 

Proper atmosphere is just as essential to the develop- 
ment of spiritual life as it is to the development of 
plant life, and it is the business of Christian parents and 
Christian teachers to see that such atmosphere pervades 
the home and the Sunday school, since without it all 
their efforts to make lasting, spiritual impressions upon 
those whom they seek to teach the way of the Lord are 
likely to prove ineffective. 

In our efforts to create a proper atmosphere physical 
conditions must be taken into consideration. Children 
respond readily to their physical surroundings. It is 
much easier to teach effectively in a neat, clean, quiet 
room, properly lighted and ventilated, than in a dismal 
and disorderly basement or in an auditorium filled 
with noise and confusion. We can hardly expect to 
inspire children with respect for what we are trying to 
do if we have not sufficient interest to cause us to kave 
the same care for the building that is dedicated to the 
worship of God and to religious education that we have 
for our own homes. On the other hand, successful 
work may be done even in a small one-room church, 
if the classes are separated by screens and if the building 
and grounds are kept neat and in good repair. 

But much more important than the physical sur- 
roundings is the spirit that animates the membership of 
the Church and especially the leadership of the Sunday 
school. That spirit must be, first of all, one of love and 

44 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





cheerfulness and reverence. And where such a spirit 
exists it will show itself in regularity and promptness 
of attendance on the part of the officers and teachers 
and in their whole bearing toward each other and 
toward the school and the classes. Officers and teachers 
who habitually come to their work late or poorly pre- 
pared, or who are lacking in courtesy, calmness, and 
self-control, cannot create the kind of atmosphere in 
the Sunday school that tends to awaken the interest 
and to command the respect of the pupils. It would 
be well if these matters were more frequently discussed 
and made subjects of earnest prayer in the Workers’ 
Council, to the end that the officers and teachers them- 
selves might develop a unity of aim and purpose and 
discover the most effective ways of codperation in 
creating the most favorable conditions for the awaken- 
ing and development of the spiritual life of the pupils. 

4. One of the essential factors in a proper atmosphere 
for the Sunday school, as has already been suggested, 
is the spirit of reverence. It is not easy to maintain 
such a spirit in a group made up largely of children and 
youth. For children and youth are not naturally rever- 
ent. The spirit of reverence must be developed in them 
by wise and persistent training. Hence a very im- 
portant factor in the program of educational evangelism 
is the worship service. This should be studied both by 
the superintendent and the teachers with the greatest 
care. Every worship service, whether for the separate 
department or the school as a whole, should be thor- 
oughly planned in advance with a definite purpose of 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





meeting the religious needs of the pupils and securing 
their vital and intelligent participation. 

5. Protestantism is right in maintaining that salva- 
tion is a matter of grace and not of works, and yet 
properly directed and motivated service may be a very 
effective agency in the kind of evangelism which we 
have in mind. What we are seeking in all our evangelis- 
tic efforts is to produce religious impressions and to de- 
velop religious attitudes, and one of the means for ac- 
complishing this is that of opening up for those whom 
we wish to lead into the religious life ways of giving 
proper expression to the feelings awakened within them 
through our teaching. Truth becomes real and vital 
only as it is expressed in conduct. There have been 
many instances in which mature men and women, 
who had remained indifferent in the face of all sorts of 
appeals, have been converted by being induced to take 
part in some kind of religious activity in the Sunday 
school. And it is especially necessary in the case of 
children that impressions shall be deepened and fixed 
by expression. The teacher must not only seek to re- 
veal Christ and the Christ ideal to his pupils, but he 
must seek also to discover for them adequate ways for 
expressing the love and loyalty awakened within them. 
For only thus may their faith in him and their allegiance 
to him be vitalized and established. 


6. The Bible everywhere teaches that there is power 
in prayer, that God hears and answers prayer. No 
teacher will be successful in leading her pupils to Christ 
who does not constantly and earnestly pray for them— 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





not as a group but as individuals, each having his own 
peculiarities and his own special needs. 


III. ADAPTATION OF AGENCIES 


In the use of the agencies described above the teach- 
er must observe fundamental educational principles. 
The teaching through which the religious and moral 
nature of the child is awakened and through which the 
child is brought into a vital personal relation with 
Christ must be real teaching. And this means that all 
teaching agencies and methods must be adapted to the 
capacities and needs of those who are taught. The 
teaching material must be within the range of their un- 
derstanding and must be presented in a way that 
will appeal to their normal interests, and in the case 
of children programs of worship and activity must be 
such as will make a vital appeal to the child mind. It 
goes without saying, therefore, that the effective teach- 
ing evangelist must know his pupils and must study to 
find the easy passage to the heart of each one of them. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. What are the first steps in the evangelistic process? 

2. Mention the chief agencies in evangelism and give a brief 
explanation of each of them. 

3. Which of these agencies do you regard as most effective? 
Why? 

4, Explain the differences between preaching and teaching 
and discuss the advantages and limitations of each. 

5. How may a proper atmosphere be created in a Sunday 
school? 

6. What is meant by expression as an agency in evangelism? 

7. Discuss the place of prayer in evangelism. 


47 


CHAPTER IV 
EVANGELISTIC METHODS 


ALL of the evangelistic agencies described in the 
preceding chapter are employed in all kinds of evangel- 
istic effort, but the way in which they are employed 
and the degree of emphasis that is placed upon one or 
another of them are determined by the types of persons 
whom we are seeking to save. 

The Church from the very beginning of her ministry 
has made use of two methods of evangelism. These 
methods are commonly designated as the educational 
method and the revival. It should be observed, how- 
ever, before these methods are described, that they are 
not mutually exclusive, but that at many points they 
coincide. For instance some of the important features 
of the revival are employed by the Sunday school in its 
annual special evangelistic campaigns, and every 
successful revival must be partly the result of an educa- 
tional process lying back of it. ' And yet there is a suf- 
ficiently wide difference between the two methods to 
justify their separate consideration. 

This chapter will be devoted to-a study of educational 
evangelism. 


I. EDUCATIONAL EVANGELISM DEFINED 


The aim of all true evangelism is the same—namely, 
to awaken the moral and religious nature, bring the 
individual into vital union with Christ, and promote 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





his spiritual development by helping him to attain an 
ever-deepening knowledge of Christ. Educational 
evangelism seeks to accomplish this by an educational 
process—that is, it seeks through the continuous and 
adapted use of all legitimate evangelistic agencies to 
promote the development on the religious side of the 
intellect, the emotions, and the will in their relation to 
Jesus Christ, and his claim upon the individual life. 
It recognizes the continuous growth of religious under- 
standing and the ripening of religious appreciations 
and convictions and sees all of this as immediately 
related to what is termed “‘decision for Christ,’’ which, 
in its final form, may be the act of a moment or the 
gradual attainment of a fixed Christian attitude. 

Please observe that, according to this definition, 
educational evangelism does not represent an attempt 
to produce Christian character without divine quicken- 
ing and codperation, but that its aim is to secure such 
quickening and codperation as a condition of all real 
spiritual attainment. In other words, its aim is not to 
enable people to get along without Christ, but to bring | 
them to Christ and to help them to attain an ever-deep- | 
ening knowledge of Christ, “‘ whom to know aright is life 
eternal.” ; 


II. A FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTION 


Any program of educational evangelism must of 
necessity be based upon the assumption that man is 
endowed with both religious and moral capacities and 
that these are subject to the same laws that condition 
all his other native endowments. That is, if they are 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


supplied with proper atmosphere, proper nurture, and 
proper opportunities for expression, they will awaken 
and develop, thus making the individual in reality a 
religious and moral being. It is true that complete 
moral development can come about only by sharing 
the life of Christ through faith, but in the absence of 
moral capacity there could be no response to the appeal 
of the personality and teachings of Christ; and the 
awakening of the moral as well as the religious nature is, 
therefore, a necessary part of preparing the individual 
to accept Christ. The point to get clearly in mind is, 
however, that the above assumptions imply that every 
normal child may become the subject of moral and re- 
ligious education and that it is possible by an education- 
al process to prepare the way for the incoming of Christ 
into his heart as well as to promote the development of 
his spiritual life after he has definitely accepted Christ. 

Attention has already been called to the fact that 
the affirmation that man, even in his fallen state, pos- 
sesses religious and moral capacity is supported by 
the teachings of the Bible as well as by the study of 
human life and history. Inasmuch, however, as this 
view has for fifteen centuries been stoutly challenged 
by a large and influential section of the Church and 
inasmuch as the matter is of fundamental practical 
importance, it may be well for us to pause for a some- 
what more careful examination of the opposite conten- 
tion and the reasons for rejecting it. 

1. The system of doctrine which is known in the 
modern Church as Calvinism was first fully elaborated 
and defended by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in North 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Africa, who lived from 354 to 430 A.D. The funda- 
mental article in Augustine’s creed was that of the 
absolute and unconditioned sovereignty of God. 
This led naturally to a complete denial of the free agency 
of man. Man is a mere puppet in the hands of an om- 
nipotent autocrat, who orders everything according to 
his sovereign will. Whatever happens comes about 
according to his arbitrary purpose and decree. 

Contradictory as it may appear, however, Augustine 
taught also that Adam, although utterly impotent and 
helpless, by his fall not only brought the whole human 
race under legal condemnation, but also brought about 
the complete destruction of man’s moral nature, leaving 
him not simply destitute of moral capacity, but actually 
and innately wicked. That is, the child is not so con- 
stituted that he may become wicked. He is born so. 
For original sin, according to Augustine’s interpreta- 
tion, is much more than an inherited moral taint or 
tendency to evil which must be counteracted by divine 
grace. It is real guilt of the deepest and blackest kind. 
The doctrine of infant damnation follows as a logical 
conclusion. ‘‘The infant who is lost,’’ says Augustine, 
“is punished because he belongs to the mass of perdi- 
tion and, asa child of Adam, is justly condemned.” 

At the time of the Reformation John Calvin, a 
brilliant French theologian, adopted and elaborated 
the views of Augustine and brought them over into 
Protestantism. Calvin teaches concerning children 
that “‘they bring condemnation from their mother’s 
womb”’ and that ‘‘they are odious and abominable to 
God.” 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





2. It would seem that a system of doctrine so re- 
pugnant to reason, so contrary to the observed facts of 
life, and so completely out of harmonywith the revela- 
tion of God in Christ Jesus would meet with instant 
and universal condemnation in our modern world. 
As a matter of fact, however, although Calvinism in 
its grosser forms is no longer generally accepted, it still 
has a profound influence upon the religious thought of 
the Christian world. There are millions of people who 
do not regard themselves as Calvinists, but whose views 
in regard to such important matters as child nature 
and child nurture and the meaning, conditions, and 
consequences of the new birth are nevertheless largely 
determined by Calvinistic presuppositions. This is 
one of the reasons why Protestantism has always given 
religious education a subordinate place in her program 
and has never even seriously attempted to develop a 
consistent and thoroughgoing system of Christian 
nurture and training. For it is evident that, if the 
Calvinistic view of human nature is accepted, the idea 
of religious education becomes an absurdity except in 
the case of those who have already been regenerated. 

And it is because of the paralyzing influence of 
this widespread heresy upon the most important part 
of the great practical task of the Church that I deem 
it worth while to give it an amount of attention that I 
should not otherwise regard as necessary. It is time 
that Methodists, at any rate, were ridding themselves 
of the lingering influence of this monstrous survival of 
medieval theology and fully and intelligently accepting 
all the implications of their Arminian creed. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





(1) This creed, in the first place, is in harmony with 
the fundamental teachings of the Bible. The God who 
is revealed in Jesus Christ is not an arbitrary tyrant, 
but a loving Father. And throughout the Bible, in 
both the Old and New Testaments, man is recognized 
as a free agent, endowed with religious and moral 
capacity, and therefore capable of responding to re- 
ligious and moral appeals. Without such capacity the 
whole divine revelation would be meaningless. For 
what is the Bible, after all, but the record of God’s 
providence in the religious and moral education of the 
Chosen People, and of his continuous and patient appeal 
to men as free moral agents to seek deliverance from 
sin by coming into living fellowship with him and sur- 
rendering their hearts and their wills to him? Herein, 
as has already been suggested, lies a very important 
part of the meaning of the incarnation. It is the cul- 
mination of God’s effort so to reveal himself to his 
bewildered and doubting and erring children as to win 
their trust, their love, and their passionate devotion. 
“‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto him- 
self’’; ‘‘God so loved the world that he gave his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life.”’ 

It is true that, according to the teaching of St. Paul, 
this does not exhaust the meaning of the atonement. 
For even Arminian theologians admit that the great 
apostle teaches a doctrine of the federal headship of 
Adam. They emphatically deny, however, that his 
teaching bears any resemblance to that of Augustine 
and Calvin. Paul maintains that, since Adam was the 

53 





EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


father of the race, his transgression resulted (a) in 
bringing the whole race under legal condemnation and 
(b) in so tainting human nature as to make it impos- 
sible for any one without divine help to attain inner 
harmony and complete moral triumph. But he also 
teaches that through Jesus Christ provision is made 
for meeting both of these difficulties. That is, he main- 
tains that through the work of Christ legal acquittal 
is secured for the entire race and provision made for 
counteracting the moral effects of the fall and for the 
offering of full and free pardon to every actual trans- 
gressor. (See Romans 5: 15-21; 1Cor.15:22.) The in- 
ferences from St. Paul’s teaching may be summarized 
as follows: 

(a) No one is born under legal condemnation. 

(b) The little child belongs to the kingdom of God 
and, if kept in the right kind of atmosphere and sup- 
plied with proper nurture and training, may, as his 
intellectual and spiritual nature unfolds, be brought 
into such a personal relation with Christ that he will 
become progressively a “‘partaker through faith of the 
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in 
the world through lust.” And in that case, although 
he may have his seasons of doubt and may sometimes 
yield to temptation, he may never know himself as 
other than a child of God. 

(c) The prodigal who has left the Father’s house and 
wasted his spiritual substance in riotous living, through 
repentance and faith, may obtain pardon and cleansing 
and be restored to his forfeited birthright. 

(2) All this is in accord with the historic position of 

54 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Methodism as interpreted in the writings of its early 
leaders and as authoritatively set forth in its doctrinal 
standards. 

(a) It is not claimed that early Methodist theologians 
saw and accepted all the implications of the Arminian 
creed which they adopted. The Church in which they 
grew up had been dominated for more than a thousand 
years by the theology of Augustine, and it would have 
been practically impossible for them all at once entirely 
to rid themselves of its influence. But they rejected 
its fundamental contentions and at least pointed out 
to their successors the direction in which the theological 
thought of the future was bound to move. They 
taught the universality of the divine fatherhood and 
love, the universality of the atonement, and the uni- 
versality of the offer of the gracious privilege of coming 
through faith into a saving friendship with Jesus Christ. 
They taught also that man is a free agent, that he is 
endowed with capacities which make it possible for 
him to respond to the appeal of moral and spiritual 
ideals, and that his destiny, therefore, is determined, 
not by divine decree, but by his own voluntary choice. 

Commenting on Romans 5: 18, John Wesley says: 
“We conceive that, as through the obedience and death 
of Christ the bodies of all men become immortal after 
the resurrection, so their souls receive a capacity of 
spiritual life and an actual spark or seed thereof.’ 

John Fletcher takes pains to show that when St. 
Paul speaks of certain men as having been “dead in 
trespasses and in sins’”’ (Eph. 2: 1) he does not mean 
that their moral capacities had been utterly destroyed, 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


but that the word ‘‘dead”’ is used “‘to denote a particular 
degree of helplessness and inactivity very far short of 
the total helplessness of a corpse.’’ And it should be 
remembered that the apostle in the passage referred to 
is not speaking of the state of children as they come 
from the hand of God, but of adults who have been 
rescued by the power of Christ from lives of sin. 

Adam Clarke, after showing that ‘‘many’’ in botn 
clauses of Romans 5: 15 (‘‘For if by the trespass of the 
one the many died, much more did the grace of God, 
and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, 
abound unto the many’’) includes every human being, 
adds that the passage as a whole means that “saving 
grace is tendered to every soul, and a measure of divine 
light is actually communicated to every heart.” 

And Doctor James Whedon, a distinguished Meth- 
odist theologian of the last century, whose Com- 
mentaries were widely used by Methodist preachers 
fifty years ago, comments as follows on Romans 5: 18: 
“From Adam’s offense resulted condemnation upon 
all men; from Christ’s righteousness justification (in 
the sense of legal acquittal) upon all men. The con- 
demnation would have produced exclusion of the race 
from existence by the infliction of immediate death 
upon Adam. But the glorification by the atonement 
secured the continuity of the race by which every person 
comes into the world in a justified state.”’ 

Quotations of similar import might be multiplied 
almost without number. These are sufficient, however, 
to show that the views which are here advanced are all 
necessarily implied in the fundamental assumptions 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


of Arminian theology and in their essential features 
have from the beginning been advocated by the great 
interpreters of Methodism. 

(6) The clearest authoritative interpretation of the 
position of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
in regard to the nature of the child is found in our 
ritual for the baptism of infants. The ritual opens with 
the following exhortation to the congregation: 

“Dearly beloved, forasmuch as all men, though 
fallen in Adam, are born into this world in Christ the 
Redeemer, heirs of life eternal and subjects of the saving 
grace of the Holy Spirit; and that our Saviour Christ 
saith, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God’; 
I beseech you to call upon God the Father through our 
Lord Jesus Christ, that of his bounteous goodness he 
will so grant unto this child, now to be baptized, the 
continual replenishing of his grace, that he may ever 
remain in the fellowship of God’s holy Church, by faith 
that is in Jesus Christ.’’ 

The prayer which comes immediately after this 
address begins as follows: ‘‘Almighty, ever-living God, 
we beseech thee for thine infinite mercies that thou 
wilt look upon this child, sanctify him ever with the 
Holy Ghost; that, abiding safe in the ark of Christ’s 
holy Church, and being steadfast in faith,” etc. And 
finally, in the admonition to the parents of the child, 
they are reminded that it is their bounden duty to 
attend diligently to his religious education and are 
required to promise that ‘‘when he hath reached the 
age of discretion, he being willing thereto and showing 

57 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


evidence of a living faith in Christ,’’ they will bring 
him before the congregation, that he may ratify and 
make his own the act of ‘‘dedication’’ implied in his 
baptism. 

Doubtless isolated passages may be quoted from 
the Bible which seem to favor the Calvinistic position; 
but it is so repugnant to reason and so thoroughly 
contrary to the teachings of Jesus that an ever- 
increasing number of modern Christians find themselves 
under an intellectual compulsion to seek for some other 
interpretation of these passages than that which 
Calvinism places upon them. John Wesley, who was 
one of the most tolerant and catholic men that ever 
lived, declared that the God of Calvinism was worse 
than the devil, and when the advocates of the doctrine 
affirmed that they could prove it from the Bible, his 
reply was: ‘‘ Will you prove by the Scripture that God 
is worse than the devil? It cannot be. Whatever the 
Scripture proves, it cannot prove this; whatever its 
true meaning be, this cannot be its true meaning. 
Do you ask, ‘What is its true meaning then?’ If I 
say I know not, you have gained nothing; for there are 
many Scriptures the true sense whereof neither you 
nor I shall know till death is swallowed up in victory. 
But this I know, better it were to say that it had no 
sense at all than to say that it had such a sense as this.” 
The plain meaning of this statement is that Wesley 
found the teachings of Augustine and Calvin so con- 
trary to reason and so thoroughly out of harmony with 
God’s revelation in Christ that no array of proof texts 
and arguments could convince him of their truth. 

58 


ee ae a a ama, 
EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


(3) What John Wesley found impossible in his day is 
certainly not less so to those who are one hundred and 
fifty years farther away from the influence of the out- 
worn and discredited social, political, and theological 
beliefs of the medieval world, and have had one hun- 
dred and fifty additional years in which to study in the 
free atmosphere of modern Christian democracy the 
teachings of Jesus and the moral and religious history 
of mankind. For while this study reveals to us in- 
veterate evil tendencies in man, it reveals to us also 
the existence of capacities and aspirations which 
answer to the challenge of ‘‘the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus.” The literature of all lands and ages is 
filled with the records of man’s religious longings and 
of his struggles for moral achievement. “If you will 
take the pains to travel through the world,” says 
Plutarch, ‘‘you will find towns and cities without walls, 
without letters, without kings, without wealth, without 
money, without theaters and places of exercise, but 
there never was seen by any man any city without 
temples or gods.”” And this broad declaration has been 
abundantly confirmed by modern investigation. Doc- 
tor Livingston tells us that he found no tribe in darkest 
Africa that did not have some kind of religion. Doctor 
George A. Coe, in ‘‘ Education in Religion and Morals,” 
after speaking of reports circulated a generation or two 
since about certain tribes that were supposed to be en- 
tirely without religion, adds: ‘‘ But the tribe destitute 
of religion is found to be purely imaginary. Man hasa 
religious nature. The definite establishment of this 

59 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


proposition is perhaps the greatest service that the 
history and psychology of religion have performed.” 

And this conclusion is in harmony with the observa- 
tions of all those who have had dealings with child life. 
Sympathetic and intelligent teachers practically with- 
out exception bear testimony to the fact that there is no 
appeal to which the little child responds more readily 
than to the religious and moral appeal. 


lll. WHEN EDUCATIONAL EVANGELISM IS Most EF- 
FECTIVE 


1. The meaning of the conclusions stated in the pre- 
ceding paragraphs is that there is no bar, either legal or 
moral, to the effective religious education of the child. 

The legal condemnation under which, according to 
the teaching of St. Paul, the whole race was brought 
by the sin of Adam is completely removed through 
the sacrifice of Christ. The only condemnation, there- 
fore, under which any one rests is that which he brings 
upon himself by voluntary transgression, and, since 
the child has been guilty of no transgression, he is free 
from condemnation. 

The child inherits certain evil tendencies which can 
be overcome only through divine grace, but he possesses 
also moral and religious capacities which through 
divine grace may be quickened and developed until he 
comes to fullness of spiritual life in Christ Jesus. And 
these capacities are subject to precisely the same general 
laws and conditions as to their awakening and growth 
as are all other native capacities of the soul. 

The conclusion to which we are necessarily led, there- 

60 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


fore, is that the supreme opportunity for effective edu- 
cational evangelism is in childhood and youth. For 
the facts here stated, when carefully examined, will be 
seen to involve two things, both of which are deeply 
significant: 

(1) The child in the beginning responds as naturally 
and readily to the right kind of moral and religious 
appeal as the embryonic life wrapped up in the seed 
responds to the genial warmth and refreshing showers 
of spring. The heart of the child who is physically and 
mentally normal is always good ground. It has neither 
been hardened by neglect nor corrupted by evil habits 
nor warped from the truth by error and prejudice. 

(2) This condition of plasticity and spontaneous 
responsiveness, however, continues for a relatively 
short time. The universal law relating to the soul’s 
native capacities is that if their cultivation is entirely 
neglected they soon begin to dry up and tend toward a 
condition of more or less complete atrophy. And this 
tendency, as it relates to religious and moral capacities, 
is almost sure, in the case of the neglected child, to be 
hastened by the formation of sinful habits and blinding 
prejudices. 

As a result of these facts the early years of the child’s 
life are by all odds the most important; and, if his re- 
ligious nurture and training are neglected during these 
years, it is difficult by any subsequent effort to make up 
for the loss thus incurred. This explains the fact that 
at least seventy-five per cent of Church members join 
before they reach the age of twenty-one and that prac- 
tically all of those who become Christians after they 

61 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


are twenty-one received some measure of religious train- 
ing in early life, either in the home or in the Sunday 
school, or in both. 

Some years ago I chanced to be alone for half an 
hour with a lad who was perhaps between twelve and 
fourteen years of age. Knowing something of the social 
group to which he belonged, it occurred to me that I 
might undertake, without being impolite or unduly 
obtrusive, to find out what his attitude was toward re- 
ligion. The result of my investigation was the discovery 
that he had never been a member of any Sunday school, 
had attended only one religious service in his entire life, 
had never read a chapter in the Bible nor uttered a 
prayer, and that no sort of religious influence of any 
kind whatever had been brought to bear upon him in 
his home. When I asked him, in conclusion, what he 
thought would become of him when he died, he replied 
that he supposed he would go down into the ground. 
In other words, so far as I could ascertain, he was en- 
tirely without religious convictions and practically 
destitute of religious feeling. I know nothing about 
the subsequent history of this lad, but I am quite sure 
that if the neglect of which he had been the unfortunate 
victim was continued for five or six years longer he 
reached a point where he was practically inaccessible 
to any kind of religious appeal. 

And social workers tell us that they find many cases 
that are even more serious than this. That is, they find 
children in their early teens who have already learned 
to sneer at religion and morality and who hold the 
Church in contempt. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





It is quite certain that but few if any of those who are 
converted in our revivals are drawn from these neglected 
classes, since the inevitable consequences of such neglect 
is to destroy the responsiveness to religious and moral 
appeal which is so strikingly characteristic of early 
childhood. 

In a recent survey of religious education in the State 
of Indiana, made under the direction of Dean Walter 
S. Athearn, it was found that of the 1,693 Sunday school 
teachers who answered the questionnaire one-fourth 
joined the Church under twelve and six-tenths years 
of age and that only one-fourth joined after the age of 
seventeen and six-tenths. It is probable that if a wider 
survey were made it would be found that this is about 
the average for the entire country. The inference from 
these facts is inevitable. If the Church is to build up 
a triumphant kingdom of God on the earth by Chris- 
tianizing the individual members of society, it must 
attend diligently and intelligently to the evangelization 
of childhood and youth, And the only proper method j 
for such evangelism is the educational method. 

2. It must not be assumed, however, that educational 
evangelism is entirely inapplicable in the case of adults. 

(1) As has already been suggested, it may be rea- 
sonably assumed that most adult conversions, however 
and whenever they may be brought about, are in some 
measure the results of a previous process of religious 
education. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus was 
sudden and was the immediate result of the miraculous 
manifestation of the risen Christ; but back of it were a 
long course of religious instruction and training in 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


home and synagogue, impressions in regard to Jesus of 
Nazareth which must have come to him through 
current report, and impressions which he certainly 
received as he listened to the final message of the martyr 
Stephen and witnessed his triumphant death. And it 
was through this educational process and these awaken- 
ing influences that his heart was made ready for the 
call which came to him as he journeyed toward Damas- 
cus. 

(2) In St. Paul’s case, although there was a previous 
process of preparation, the final surrender was brought 
about through an overwhelming, dramatic appeal. 
It is possible, however, to bring at least some adults to 
the point of decision solely through methods that may 
be properly described as educational. There are, for 
instance, cases in which men are led to Christ through 
the cumulative influence of Christian wives or of 
intimate association with Christian friends or of the 
fellowship and instruction which they find in Bible 
classes. In such cases the consciences and the religious 
natures of those converted are gradually awakened 
until they are brought to a point where they realize 
their need of Christ and are willing to surrender their 
lives to him. 


IV. DANGERS AND LIMITATIONS 


Important as educational evangelism is, however, 
in building the kingdom of God, it is not without its 
dangers and its limitations. 

1. It is always possible that a program of religious 
education may degenerate into mere mechanical 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


routine. Religion is not a matter of rules, but of life; 
not a matter of information, but of emotional attitude; 
not a matter of ceremonial observances, but of im- 
mediate fellowship with God. It is possible diligently 
to instruct a child in rules of conduct, to impart to him 
a vast fund of information about the Bible, and to 
train him in the rigid observance of form and ritual, 
and yet leave him emotionally bankrupt and spiritually 
dead. In order that educational evangelism may be 
really effective, the whole process must be thoroughly 
vital and deeply spiritual—that is, it must be shot 
through with religious fervor, must provide adequate 
opportunity for the cultivation of the devotional life, 
and must so reveal Christ and his ideal as to awaken in | 
the pupil a passionate response of love and trust and | 
self-devotion. An educational process that falls short | 
of this may be soundly ethical, but it is not religious, 
nor can it produce the spiritual fruits which are found 
in the characters of those who live in fellowship with 
God. Teachers of religion, therefore, need to be on 
their guard against falling into mere mechanical routine. 
Religious pedagogy is valuable only as a means of 
making religious truth so real and vital to pupils that it 
will become the great motivating power in their lives. _ 

2. There are multitudes of men and women among us 
who are not beyond the reach of hope but who, never- 
theless, as will be more fully explained in the next 
chapter, cannot be awakened and won to Christ by 
ordinary educational processes alone. In such cases 
the educational method must be supplemented by the 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


more intensive and dramatic appeal that is made 
through the revival. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. Explain the meaning of educational evangelism. 

2. Upon what fundamental assumption does it proceed? 

3. Explain the Augustinian view of human nature and show 
that it is contrary (a) to the fundamental teachings of the 
Bible, (b) to the historic position of Methodism, and (c) to the 
observed facts of human life. 

4. Explain why our great evangelistic opportunity is with 
childhood. 

5. Discuss the dangers and limitations of educational evangel- 
ism. 

6. What do these suggest to you? 

66 


CHAPTER V 
EVANGELISTIC METHODS (CONTINUED) 


I. USES OF THE REVIVAL 


ANOTHER important method of evangelism is the 
revival. There are two common types of revivals— 
namely, the general and the local revival. 

1. The general revival, which is often national and 
sometimes even international in its scope, while it 
requires human coéperation, is not, as a rule, the result 
of human prevision and planning, but of great provi- 
dential events and movements for which human 
planning is only indirectly responsible. All down 
through the history of the Church there have been 
times when, through some unusual succession of oc- 
currences or combination of forces, God has moved 
upon the Church with extraordinary potency, quicken- 
ing its spiritual life and setting in motion great tides 
of spiritual influence that have swept out beyond ec- 
clesiastical boundaries and brought about an awakening 
of the religious interest of multitudes who were not 
connected with any kind of religious organization. 
Such revivals, though immensely important, cannot, 
in the very nature of the case, be assigned a definite 
place in the regular program of the Church. All that 
the Church can do is to pray that the way may be 
opened for their coming and then watch for the signs 
of their approach, making sure that she is ready for 


the providential occasion when it arrives. It will be _ 


/ 
f 

f 

i 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


readily seen that a study of revivals of this kind would 
be out of place in a course like that on which we are 
engaged. 

2. Local revivals, on the other hand, are generally 
the direct outcome of intelligently and deliberately 
planned efforts to accomplish certain definite results in 
the life of the community which cannot be accomplished 
by normal educational processes. 

(1) Under the conditions which at present exist in the 
Church and in society, it is inevitable that many will 
come to manhood and womanhood without becoming 
Christians and that some of those who started in the 
way of life in childhood will yield to the allurements of 
the world and fall away from their first love. The 
Church must not despair of men and women of either 
of these classes. On the contrary, she is in duty bound 
to do everything that it is possible for her to do to save 
them. But, since they have reached a period in life in 
which character has become more or less fixed and ways 
of thought and conduct have hardened in habits, it is 
often impossible either to reach them effectively through 
educational agencies alone or to move them by ordinary 
methods of appeal. Many such, however, may still 
be awakened and won to Christ through the influence 
of the intensive method of evangelism commonly 
known as the revival. 

I read many years ago a striking illustration of what 
I mean in a sermon by Henry Ward Beecher. He said 
that when he was a boy in New England lumbermen 
used to go into the hills in winter and cut down trees, 
saw them into logs, drag them down to the frozen 

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EVEANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


streams, bind them into rafts, and leave them on the 
ice, where they would lie undisturbed for several 
months. But when the warm days of spring came, 
melting the ice and snow and sending great volumes of 
water down into the valleys, these rafts would be lifted 
out of their winter moorings and floated on the currents 
of the swollen streams down to the seaports, there to 
be transformed into lumber for the building of cities. 
So in every community, he says, there are always men 
and women, young and middle-aged and old, who are 
so bound by worldliness and evil habits that it requires 
the white heat of a great religious awakening to melt 
their icy fetters and release those flood tides of spiritual 
life and power that are required to sweep them into the 
kingdom of God. 

(2) It is difficult, if not impossible, however, for the 
ordinary Christian community to maintain continuously 
the kind of united, concentrated, and intensive effort 
which the revival requires. The average Church mem- 
ber is a very busy person. For most of our very best 
and most faithful Christians are breadwinners or home- 
keepers and are necessarily burdened with many cares 
and with much serving. The very physical limitations 
under which they labor, therefore, make it impossible 
for them to give more than a limited portion of their 
time to evangelistic work and render it exceedingly 
difficult for them continuously to maintain that high 
degree of spiritual! fervor which is an essential factor in 
the successful revival. A group of Christians, therefore, 
agree for a limited period to give more time and more 
concentrated attention to evangelistic effort than it is 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





possible for them to give continuously. They meet 
together frequently for prayer and conference. They 
plan the work which they are to undertake and take 
counsel with one another about the best ways of doing 
it, and they curtail their hours of rest and in some cases 
temporarily neglect their ordinary business in order that 
they may devote themselves completely to the task 
in hand. Meanwhile the minister, having made a 
careful study of the local situation, seeks by means of 
fervid messages that are adapted to their needs to reach 
and arouse and win those who are brought to the serv- 
ices through the personal efforts of his fellow workers. 

The revival is not an effort to induce an indifferent 
God to pay an occasional visit to a congregation or a 
community from which he is ordinarily separated or a 
reluctant God to do something which he does not great- 
ly desire to do. God is always at hand and always 
ready to share his life in overflowing measure with 
those who are ready to receive it. But for the accom- 
plishment of spiritual results he must work mainly 
through human beings, and the revival is simply an 
occasion when a group of consecrated Christian people 
devote themselves for a season more completely to a 
certain type of service than is continuously possible for 
them. 

(3) It is sometimes said that the ideal at which the 
Church should aim is a revival that continues the year 
round. Such an ideal, however, under our common 
human conditions, is impossible of realization. Every 
Church ought certainly to be spiritually alive and active 
in evangelistic work the year round, but the very idea 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





of the revival is that of securing unusual spiritual re- 
sults by such a concentration of attention and energy 
on a certain type of service as cannot be kept up all 
the time. 

3. A careful study of the foregoing paragraph will 
naturally suggest that, besides its purpose to arrest 
and awaken and win the unconverted to Christ, the 
revival has a distinct educational value and should be 
regarded as an important factor in the educational 
program of the Church. Notice what is said about the 
heavy demands that are made upon the time and 
thought and energy of the average Christian by the 
ordinary routine of his daily duties as breadwinner or 
home-keeper and about the multitudinous distractions 
that grow out of his business and his social relations. 
Recall the further fact that many of his contacts are 
with people whose influence is by no means friendly to 
the development of his moral and spiritual life, and it 
at once becomes apparent that most Christians will 
inevitably find themselves engaged in a constant strug- 
gle against a tendency to fall into a condition of spiritual 
lethargy and to adopt an attitude of moral compromise. 

The revival not only brings temporary release from 
these burdens and distractions and from the temptation 
to grow weary in well doing, but it also sets in motion 
influences that reinvigorate our spiritual life, rekindle 
our religious fervor, and send us back with renewed 
zeal and energy to the homely tasks of everyday life. 
Every Christian needs occasionally a special season of 
spiritual recuperation. There are some who find op- 
portunity for such recuperation in the summer gather- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


ings for Christian fellowship and religious study which 
have become so conspicuous a feature of the program of 
the modern Church. For the rank and file of Church 
members, however, such opportunity comes only 
through the annual revival. 


II. LIMITATIONS OF THE REVIVAL 


But the best things lend themselves most readily to 
abuse. We need not be surprised, therefore, to discover 
that the revival as well as the educational method of 
evangelism has its dangers and its limitations. 

1. Almost every one knows something about what is 
popularly spoken of as crowd psychology, and that one 
of its characteristics is that almost any group of people, 
a community, a city, or even a whole nation, may be 
swept by a wave of emotion, often hysterical in its 
intensity, that has back of it no adequate reason for its 
existence. A familiar illustration is found in the ac- 
count in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the mob 
at Ephesus which threatened the life of St. Paul. The 
people had been stirred to a. frenzy by the shrewd 
maneuverings of a certain silversmith named Demetrius, 
who appealed at once to their cupidity and their re- 
ligious fanaticism by suggesting that it was possible 
that the preaching of the apostle might seriously inter- 
fere with their business and at the same time bring 
discredit upon the worship of Diana. This suggestion 
was rapidly passed from mouth to mouth, until by and 
by practically the whole city was stirred to a frenzy 
of excitement, and the people rushed madly through 
the streets shouting: ‘‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Most of them, however, did not know what it was all 
about: “‘Some cried one thing and some another: for 
the assembly was in confusion; and the most part 
knew not wherefore they were come together.”’ They 
had simply become the victims of a sudden tempest of 
mob frenzy and were ready for any crime that their 
leaders might suggest. Illustrations of the same mani- 
festation, more familiar and nearer at home, may be 
seen in such occurrences as the real estate booms which 
a few years ago drove many of our American cities into 
orgies of wild and extravagant speculation. 

(1) These illustrations are given, not for the purpose 
of discrediting revivals, but only for the purpose of point- 
ing out one of the dangers to which they are subject. 
At certain times and in certain types of communities 
conditions arise which make it comparatively easy for 
a forceful and magnetic leader to start a wave of re- 
ligious emotion that has no background of vital con- 
viction or sound teaching. There is always danger 
that a so-called revival may assume this type, and the 
danger is made all the greater by the fact that the re- 
vivalist himself may not be a conscious charlatan. 
There doubtless have occasionally been bad men who 
took advantage of the readiness of human nature to 
yield to certain kinds of emotional appeal in order to 
glorify themselves and incidentally to replenish their 
purses. I am persuaded, however, that such cases are 
exceptional. Spurious revivalism, in most instances, 
comes from the fact that the leaders themselves are 
deceived; they take shallow emotionalism that has no 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


real conviction back of it as a sign of a real work of 
grace in the community. 

(2) The possibility of such abuses is not to be interpre- 
ted, however, as a reason for abandoning the use of the 
revival but, as has already been suggested, as simply a 
warning against one of the dangers to which it is liable. 
Every religious appeal is in some sense an appeal to 
the emotional nature, since religion is a matter of emo- 
tional attitude as well as of conviction. In the revival 
this emotional appeal reaches an unusual degree of 
intensity. Indeed, the fact that there are types of 
people who can be moved in no other way except 
through such appeal, as has already been pointed out, 
is one of the reasons why the revival is necessary. 
In order, however, that an appeal to adults or those who 
are approaching adulthood may have any moral or 
spiritual significance it must be an appeal to real con- 
viction, and where such conviction does not exist it 
must be created by definite instruction given either 
from the pulpit or in some other legitimate way. It is 
of no avail to call on a man to surrender his life to 
Christ who knows nothing about Christ or what he 
stands for or what it means to be his disciple. An 
adult’s surrender to Christ is significant only in propor- 
tion as it is a voluntary response of the heart and the 
will to a real revelation of Christ and of the kind of life 
which he requires. 

(3) This means, as has already been shown, that the 
revival itself, in order to be truly effective, must in some 
sense be educational. That is, the revivalist, as a basis 
for his invitation, must so interpret Christ and the 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


ideals for which he stands as to fill those to whom the 
invitation is extended with a loathing for their sinful 
and selfish lives and a passionate longing to arise from 
the lethargy into which they have fallen and to live 
as Christ would have them live. This is necessary 
even in the cases of adults who had some measure of 
religious training in childhood, but later fell into evil 
ways or became so absorbed in material concerns that 
they lost whatever religious interest they may once 
have had. For such men and women will, as a rule, be 
found to have in their minds only meager and vague 
ideas in regard to the personality and work and teach- 
ings of Christ, and therefore the only way of effective 
approach to them is by a process of teaching, either in 
the Church school or from the pulpit, that will give 
form and substance to their indefinite and chaotic 
notions. 

(4) If the revival is thus properly prepared for and 
wisely and intelligently conducted, it is altogether possi- 
ble that through it many may be reached and won who 
cannot be reached and won in any other way. For it 
must not be inferred from anything that has been said 
that group influence is always and necessarily bad. 
On the contrary, it may be and often is thoroughly 
wholesome, and its proper use in evangelistic effort, 
therefore, is entirely legitimate. 

2. There are types of men and women who cannot be 
reached through revival methods. With some of these 
opposition may be a mere matter of prejudice growing 
out of abuses, either real or imaginary, of which they 
have been witnesses. In other cases, however, it is 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


the result of some personal peculiarity such as a tenden- 
cy to excessive reticence in regard to the deeper ex- 
periences of their lives or an instinctive fear of becoming 
the victims of mere group emotion. In all of these 
cases it is our duty as Christian evangelists to take 
men as we find them and to seek to reach them by such 
means as are likely to prove most effective. In other 
words, instead of insisting on dealing with men and 
women as if they were all cast in precisely the same 
mold, we should recognize their temperamental differ- 
ences and follow St. Paul’s principle of seeking to be- 
come all things to all men if by any means we may 
win them. 

3. The conditions of modern life are much less favor- 
able to the revival than were those of the simpler and 
less strenuous days of our fathers. We live in an age 
of big business and big cities and of steam and electrici- 
ty and crashing machinery. The tumult of the world is 
continually in our ears and the glamour of the world 
in our eyes. The bewildering complexity of life, 
with its multitudinous distractions and engagements, 
leaves us with but little time for repose and quiet 
thinking. We are absorbed in getting and spending, 
in hurrying hither and thither on errands of business 
or pleasure, in seeking new sensations and launching 
new enterprises. It is inevitable that it should be 
found increasingly difficult at such a time to turn the 
attention of those who have been caught in this mad 
rush to religion. That we actually find it so is made 
manifest by the sensational methods to which we too 
often resort to attract the outside multitudes to our 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





revival services. Such methods, however, even con- 
ceding their legitimacy, are sure to prove but temporari- 
ly effective; for not even the genius of the most original 
evangelist is equal to the task of satisfying the demands 
of the seeker after the sensational for new excitements. 
Methods that attract this year will have grown stale 
and lost their drawing power a year or two hence, 
and something still more spectacular will be required 
to excite the jaded nerves of the habitual seeker after 
something new and sensational. 

And so it grows ever more difficult to reach through 
any kind of legitimate evangelistic appeal those who 
have already become absorbed in the cares of business 
or professional life or in the feverish quest for pleasure. 

All of these considerations lead directly to one con- 
clusion—namely, that it is the imperative duty of the 
Church, instead of waiting until men have become 
blighted and hardened by sin or fixed in their prejudices 
and habits or absorbed in the mad chase after money 
or excitement, to take advantage of the opportunity 
for making disciples that is found in the freedom and 
plasticity and open-mindedness of childhood. For 
this opportunity, when once it is gone, never returns, 
and no efforts that we may put forth in after years can 
compensate for our failure to make the most of it. 

4. The methods which the revival employs are not 
only unnecessary in the case of children, but are en- 
tirely unsuited to them. While the child is the victim 
of an inheritance of evil tendencies, he is not a sinner 
in the sense in which an adult may be a sinner. He 
has not purposely chosen the way of rebellion against 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


God, nor has he formed any fixed evil habits. On the 
contrary, his spiritual nature is plastic and responsive. 
He needs, therefore, no cyclone to arouse him from 
spiritual lethargy. The close personal influence of 
Christian parents and teachers, recruited and made 
effective by a genial atmosphere of love and reverence 
in the home and the church, is sufficient for his re- 
ligious and moral awakening. Indeed, the kind of 
intense emotional appeal that is often found necessary 
in the revival, instead of helping him, may prove really 
hurtful to him. For the feelings of the young are easily 
touched, and any kind of intense emotional pressure 
may result in reactions so violent as to produce perma- 
nent injury to the nervous system. To the influences 
of such unusual excitements are due most of the peculiar 
fears that so often haunt the lives of little children and 
that in many cases prove a serious hindrance to their 
healthy and harmonious development. It is unwise, 
therefore, since children may be so easily awakened and 
won to a saving faith in Christ by normal and whole- 
some educational methods, to take the needless risk of 
subjecting them to the intense emotional appeal of the 
revival. 

5. Another limitation of the revival method of 
evangelism grows out of the fact that it is necessarily 
periodical. Evangelism in the largest sense means 
the process of making Christians, and one of the es- 
sential steps in this process is the bringing of each 
individual into a vital, personal relation with Jesus 
Christ. Christian experience must have a beginning, 
but it must also have a continuous growth. We all 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


begin the Christian life as babes in Christ; but the ideal 
which St. Paul sets before us is that we shall ‘‘all attain 
unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure 
of the stature of the fullness of Christ.’’ (Eph. 4: 13.) 
That is, the making of a Christian is not a process that 
comes to an end when an individual has been led to 
accept Christ, but is to continue until he has attained 
unto the full maturity of Christian life and experience. 

Now the revival affords in many cases an effective 
means for leading people to enter definitely upon the 
Christian life, but it does not provide the conditions of 
normal and continuous religious development. It 
must be followed, therefore, by an adapted educational 
process if its results are to be permanent. The history 
of the Church is filled with the record of spiritual 
tragedies that have followed revivals because no ade- 
quate provision was made for carrying to completion 
the work which these revivals began. 


III. EvALUATION 


The conclusions to which this study leads us may be 
summarized as follows: 

The Church should seek to carry out a complete 
evangelistic program and to this end should make the 
most effective use of all available agencies and all legiti- 
mate methods, giving to each its rightful place and its 
due proportion of emphasis. A Church that does not 
avail itself of the opportunity furnished by the revival, 
besides failing to win many who are not to be regarded 
as entirely inaccessible to the religious appeal, will 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


run the risk of falling into formalism and spiritual 
lethargy. A Church, on the other hand, that depends 
mainly on revivals will fail not only to make the most 
of the wonderful evangelistic opportunity that is 
furnished by childhood and youth, but also to develop 
those whom it succeeds in bringing to Christ into 
vigorous and efficient Christians. Every congregation 
should seek through occasional special revival efforts 
both to quicken its own spiritual life and to win those 
who cannot be won in any other way. But every con- 
gregation should also be a center of continuous and 
intelligently directed educational evangelism. And, 
as between these methods, it is easy to see where the 
leading emphasis should be placed. The chief field of 
evangelistic opportunity is that of childhood, and 
the only evangelistic method that is applicable in this 
field is the educational method. Instead, therefore, 
of attempting to make the revival a substitute for educa- 
tional evangelism, we should regard it as supplementary 
to it 


IV. THE PLACE OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL. 


1. In order that the Church may carry out a complete 
evangelistic program, giving to educational evangelism 
its rightful place of primacy, it must have a definite 
educational policy both for the whole body and for 
each local congregation. That is, it must have an 
organized system of Church schools and a carefully 
wrought out plan for equipping these schools for 
effective work. Such a plan will include, among other 
things, provision for promoting the erection of adequate 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





buildings, for the training of officers and teachers, for 
the production of a thoroughly adapted curriculum, for 
the creation of a unified organization and program in the 
local congregation, and for the development of such an 
educational consciousness in the membership of the 
Church as would insure its hearty and intelligent sup- 
port. 

It requires but a limited knowledge of the situation 
that at present exists in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, to enable one to see that it falls far short 
of the ideal thus briefly outlined. 

There has been during recent years a marvelous 
increase of interest throughout the Church in religious 
education, but we have not yet reached the point of giv- 
ing it a central place in our evangelistic work. Indeed, 
many of us have not yet come to think of evangelism at 
all in terms of !an educational process. We think of it 
rather as identical with revivalism and do not give 
serious consideration to any other type of evangelistic 
effort except the revival. As a result of this attitude 
many of our Sunday school teachers do not regard 
their work as having any direct relation to evangelism 
and hence have no definite evangelistic aim. 

And great as has been the recent development of our 
Sunday school work, we are still far from anything ap- 
proaching a unified and comprehensive system of 
religious education. On the contrary, we have in each 
congregation a number of organizations taking part in 
the educational task without any effort at correlation 
and codrdination. Such an arrangement inevitably 
results in confusion and overlapping and makes im- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


possible the development of any clear-cut educational 
program with a definite aim and a definite plan for 
accomplishing this aim. We shall never be able to do 
the most effective work in educational evangelism until 
we rid ourselves of this confusion. What we need is one 
Church School in each congregation charged with all 
the various phases of religious education and clearly 
conscious of the nature and meaning of its evangelistic 
mission. 

2. The advantages of such a school as an agency in 
evangelism are apparent: 

It would concentrate the attention of all of the edu- 
cational forces of the Church upon the task of edu- 
cational evangelism. 

It would tend to develop an ever-increasing multitude 
of active and efficient lay evangelists and an evangel- 
istic program that would be continuous throughout the 
entire year. 

And these lay evangelists would have the advantage 
of immediate and vital personal contact with those 
whom they sought to bring into the kingdom and of 
being able to adapt both their methods and their teach- 
ing material to people of all ages and stages of develop- 
ment. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. Explain two types of revivals. 

2. Are revivals likely to have a permanent place in the evan- 
gelistic program of the Church? Why? 

3. What educational value has the revival? 

4. Explain the chief danger of the revival. 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





5. Have illustrations of this danger come under your personal 
observation? 

6. How is this danger to be guarded against? 

7. Have you known types of people who could not be reached 
successfully through the revival? 

8. Are conditions at present more or less favorable for reach- 
ing outsiders through revivals than they formerly were? Give 
reasons for your answer. 

9. What would you regard as a complete evangelistic program 
for a local Church? 

83 


CHAPTER VI 
EARLY CHILDHOOD 


SINCE we are dealing primarily with evangelism in 
the Sunday school, and since the Sunday school is an 
educational agency, our main interest in these studies 
is naturally in educational evangelism. And if the 
conclusions in regard to child nature which are stated 
in the preceding chapters are accepted, it follows as a 
necessary consequence that the evangelistic process 
should begin with the beginning of the child’s life. 


I. EVANGELISM AS APPLIED TO EARLY CHILDHOOD 


1. While the newly born babe is neither religious nor 
moral, he is potentially both a religious and a moral 
being. That is, he is endowed with religious and moral 
capacities which may be awakened and developed and 
through the development of which he may be brought 
into a vital personal relation with Jesus Christ. And 
this is what evangelism means as applied to the little 
child. The process should begin with the beginning of 
his life. ‘‘Genuine and true, living religion,” says 
Froebel, ‘‘reliable in danger and struggles, in times of 
oppression and need, in joy and pleasure, must come to 
man in his infancy. . . . The religious spirit, a 
fervid life in God and with God, in all conditions and 
circumstances, will hardly, in later years, rise to full 
vigorous life, if it has not grown up with man from his 
infancy. On the other hand, a religious spirit thus 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


fostered and nursed from early infancy will rise supreme 
in all storms and dangers of life.”’ In other words, 
he maintains that the realization of the full possibilities 
of each stage of development ‘‘depends on the vigorous, 
complete, and characteristic development of each and 
all preceding stages of life.” This means that in the 
matter of religious education the first years of the 
child’s life are supremely important and that the child 
who is denied proper nurture and training during these 
years loses something for which no subsequent effort 
can make up. He may be awakened and converted 
later on, but it will be exceedingly difficult for him to 
attain that inner harmony and that complete sense of 
being at home with God which would have been possible 
to him if from the beginning he had been ‘‘ brought up 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”’ 

2. It follows from the above that the first school of 
evangelism, both in time and importance, is the home 
and that to no other class of builders of the kingdom 
does there come such an opportunity for making dis- 
ciples as that which is given to Christian fathers and 
mothers. The influence of their personalities and bear- 
ing and the general atmosphere that pervades the home 
begin to influence the life of the child a few hours after 
birth, and for a number of years they continue to be, 
not only the most important, but almost the sole 
factors in determining his development. Mrs. Mum- 
ford, in ‘‘The Dawn of Religion in the Mind of the 
Child,’’ after calling attention to the fact that it is asa 
result of the slow and unconscious sifting out of re- 
peated experiences brought about by the things done 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





for him or before him that the child learns about the 
world around him and the world within him, adds: 


Is it not clear, then, that, from the first, there must be a difference 
between the growth of the child’s knowledge of God and his knowledge 
of other matters—a difference more marked; according to the 
child’s natural responsiveness and according to his native spirit- 
ual endowment? For when his mother prays, her attitude, her 
tone of voice, her expression of face, the very touch of her hand, 
are different from what they are at any other time and under any 
other circumstances; and to this difference the child instinc- 
tively responds. Silently and unconsciously, her reverence, her 
love, communicated to him, in some strange and exquisite way, 
along the chords of common sympathy, call forth in him, almost 
from the first, feelings akin to her own. What she feels, he too 
begins to feel: and a child is capable of religious feeling long 
before he is capable of religious thought. 


These remarks at once suggest the possibility of 
greatly increasing the effectiveness of the agencies 
through which the child’s religious life is awakened by 
intelligent and purposeful effort. Froebel, for instance, 
suggests that the mother should frequently pray by the 
bedside of her babe with hands folded and eyes up- 
lifted and that she should soothe him to sleep in the 
evening and awaken him in the morning by softly 
singing simple religious songs to him. 

The writer, a number of years ago, heard a cultivated 
Christian woman say that she began in a definite and 
purposeful way the religious education of her first baby 
as soon as she was able to sit up and hold the baby in 
her arms. Upon being asked how she went about this 
sacred task, she replied that she began by singing simple 
teligious songs and then, with eyes uplifted to heaven, 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


uttering a few simple sentences of prayer for the divine 
blessing. Later she began to talk to the child about the 
love and goodness of God and the precious gifts through 
which this love and goodness are expressed. At first, 
of course, the little one understood nothing of all that 
her mother said and did, but as the process was con- 
tinued from day to day there was a gradual awakening 
of both her intellectual and spiritual nature and an 
increasing response both of mind and heart. As the 
child grew older the educational process was of course 
modified to meet the demands of her unfolding life. 
The field of her knowledge and interest was gradually 
widened, and she was taught to express through ap- 
propriate words and actions the love and reverence 
that were gradually awakened within her. And so she 
was led step by step into a deeper experience of the 
religious life and a more real fellowship with the heaven- 
ly Father. 

And it must be kept constantly in mind that this 
is to be the aim of evangelism in the case of the little 
child just as it is in the case of one who is more ad- 
vanced in life. ‘‘Merely to tell a child about God,” 
says Mrs. Mumford in the volume quoted above, ‘‘and 
then to teach him a simple form of prayer is but a poor 
substitute for teaching him to know God. Second- 
hand knowledge can never be a sufficient basis of inter- 
course. Love is the necessary basis for prayer if it is to 
be real.’”’ The spirit of love and reverence must be first 
awakened in the mind of the child through the atmos- 
phere of the home and the religious life of the father 
and mother expressing itself in song, in attitudes and 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





words of worship, and in daily acts of service. And 
then, when the child is old enough to understand, this 
love and reverence must by definite instruction be 
lifted up to God. That is, the parents must tell the 
child about the loving Father to whom they are able 
to speak about all their joys and troubles and to whom 
both they and he are indebted for all the good gifts of 
life. This instruction must, of course, be largely con- 
crete. That is, it must be in the form of stories showing 
God’s love and goodness and power and of illustra- 
tions drawn from nature and from the child’s everyday 
experiences. 

Through such teaching the child gradually becomes 
conscious of the presence of the Unseen Friend and is 
made ready for entering into personal communion 
with him. Prayer in the form of both petition and 
thanksgiving becomes natural to him, and, although 
his understanding is very meager, he begins to have 
real and vital fellowship with the heavenly Father. 
And this is the beginning of all spiritual attainment. 
Potentially everything is involved in this experience 
that belongs to the experiences of later life. The child 
becomes a partaker of the divine nature in precisely 
the same sense in which one who is brought to a knowl- 
edge of God in adult life does so. 

3. The question is often raised at this point as to 
whether or not a child thus brought up needs to be 
regenerated. To be sure he does. Regeneration is the 
cleansing and quickening of the human life through 
personal touch with the life of God. And this cleansing 
and quickening can be brought about in no other way. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


‘‘Except one be born from above,” says Jesus, ‘“‘he 
cannot see the kingdom of God.’’ When I was a lad 
on the farm I discovered that the most lusty stalk of 
corn standing alone in the middle of a cotton field never 
bore more than a few grains of fruit. Later I learned 
the reason why this was so. Each embryonic grain in 
the ear had to be fertilized by the pollen falling from 
the tassels, and since one tassel did not furnish a suf- 
ficiency of pollen the single stalk was doomed to practi- 
cal barrenness. So each soul must be purified and its 
spiritual potentialities must be recruited by the in- 
dwelling of the Holy Spirit, by the birth from above. 
Were it otherwise, it is possible to conceive that one 
might come to the fullness of spiritual life without the 
help of religion. 

4. This does not mean, however, that the child 
must pass through a religious crisis similar to that 
through which an older person who has wandered 
away from God often passes in turning away from his 
sinful ways and coming back to the Father’s house. 
In our common speech we use the word ‘‘conversion”’ 
as synonymous with “regeneration,’’ and there is no 
objection to our doing so provided we keep in mind the 
fact that it is never so used in the New Testament. 
In the King James Version the verb ‘‘to convert”’ or 
“to be converted’”’ occurs only a few times (Matthew 
13:15; Mark 4: 12; John 12: 40; Acts 28: 27; Matthew 
18: 3; Luke 22: 32; Acts 3: 19; James 5: 19, 20), and 
in every case it means to “turn” or ‘‘turn about.” 
In other words, it always refers to a purely human act, 
while regeneration is an act of the Holy Spirit. For 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


instance, when James says, “If any among you err 
from the truth, and one convert him,”’ he does not mean 
“if one regenerate him,” but ‘‘if one cause him to turn 
about and face toward God.” 

It does not follow, therefore, that, because every one 
must be regenerated, every one must be converted. 
On the contrary, many children are brought into true 
fellowship with God and receive the quickening of 
the. Holy Spirit long before they are old enough to 
enter definitely upon a life of sin. In other words, 
they learn to love and trust God in the same way and 
at the same time that they learn to love and trust their 
mothers, and, while they may often fail in duty just as 
older Christians do, they no more think about renounc- 
ing their loyalty to him than they do about renouncing 
their loyalty to their parents. A story is told of a Chris- 
tian woman who went to a little girl during a revival 
service and asked her if she would not come to Jesus. 
The little child replied in her naive and simple way: 
“‘T have never gone away from him yet.’”” That may 
have been literally true, and it may be as true of a fif- 
teen-year-old girl as of an eight-year-old girl. Dr. 
George H. Betts, a few years ago, sent to a large num- 
ber of active Christian workers the following questions: 

(1) Can you point to some particular time or occasion when 
you began the Christian life, in the act commonly known as 
conversion, meaning by this a turning from a state of spiritual 


coldness and indifference or rebellion to a recognition of the claims 
of Christ upon you and a consciousness of his acceptance of you? 


(2) Did you grow so gradually into your present religious 


status that you cannot point to any particular time or occasion 
when you were converted and began the Christian life? 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


About forty-five per cent of those who replied to 
these questions answered that they had experienced 
definite conversion, while about fifty-five per cent said 
that they could fix no time or place of conversion, but 
from their earliest recollection they had counted them- 
selves as Christians, having been brought up in Chris- 
tian homes and under religious instruction. Testi- 
monies of similar import are so numerous as to leave 
no doubt of the fact that many children come under 
the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit at a very 
early period in their lives and never become deliberate 
rebels against God. The fact that such children can- 
not point to the particular time when this experience 
began does not in the least discredit its reality and 
genuineness. One of the most important facts in the 
lives of most of us is our love for our mothers. We 
should no more think of questioning this love than we 
should think of questioning our existence. Of course 
we know that this love had a beginning, for there was 
a time when we did not love at all, but how and when 
the vital bond that unites us with our mothers came into 
existence is a matter about which we shall forever 
remain in ignorance. And so it may be in regard to 
the bond of faith and love that unites us with Jesus 
Christ. If we are sure that we are his and he is ours, 
we need not trouble ourselves because we cannot re- 
member when this sacred relation was established. 

5. The clear meaning of all this is that it is possible 
for the Holy Spirit to reach the heart of the little child 
and for the little child to have a true religious experi- 
ence. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


(1) This view is in accord with the teaching of the 
holy Scriptures. According to the Gospel of Luke, 
the angel who announced to Zacharias the birth of John 
the Baptist declared that he should be filled with the 
Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. (Luke 
1:15.) St. Paul exhorts fathers to bring their children 
up ‘‘in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” 
(Eph. 6: 4), and to Timothy he writes, ‘‘From a babe 
thou hast known the sacred writings, which are able to 
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is 
in Christ Jesus’? (2 Tim. 3: 15). Dr. Trumbull tells 
us that with their background of Jewish training the 
disciples to whom Jesus gave the Great Commission 
could not have understood it otherwise than as a com- 
mand to go and make disciples by the process of Chris- 
tian training; and it is certain that the facts of Jewish 
history are favorable to this interpretation. 

(2) The view which I am here maintaining, in the 
second place, is in accord with reason. We know now 
as never before that from the viewpoint of determining 
character and destiny the first years in the life of a 
human being are by all odds the most significant and 
important. It is in this period that the mind of the 
child is most plastic and impressionable. The atmos- 
phere in which he lives and the training which he re- 
ceives during these years determine the whole trend of 
his future life. It is inconceivable, therefore, that the 
heavenly Father has so arranged matters that he cannot 
come into vital touch with a living soul at the very 
time when his vitalizing power is most needed and will 
count for most in determining that soul’s development. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


(3) This view is further confirmed by the study 
of our own experiences and by our actual observations 
of child life. There are many men and women who 
know that at the point of their earliest recollection they 
had already entered upon a definite life of faith. And 
what Christian is there to-day who is not acquainted 
with little children who show every evidence of a truly 
vital religious experience? 

Take, for instance, the following illustrations: A 
lad six years of age dictated a letter to his grandmother 
in which he told her about two stanzas of poetry which 
he had recently learned. ‘I got a little notion,’’ he 
said, ‘‘that I was afraid to go to bed in the dark, and 
so mother taught me these poems’”’; and then he quoted 
the following stanzas from Tennyson and Whittier: 
““Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands 
and feet,’’ and 

I know not where his islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air; 


I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond his love and care. 


And after explaining that the stanzas referred to Jesus, 
he added, ‘‘I like those poems. Somehow they make 
me feel good in the dark.’’ The same lad said to his 
mother one day: ‘‘ Mother, I think it so much fun to 
pray. When I shut my eyes and everybody gets 
quiet, it seems that nobody is there but God and me.” 
That this experience was not only real but had a definite 
ethical content is indicated by the reaction of the same 
child after his mother had read to him a book on the 
life of Paul. He had been intensely interested in the 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


story from beginning to end, and when the entire volume 
of something like two hundred and fifty pages had been 
finished he said to her: ‘‘ Mother, I want to grow up to 
be a brave, good man like St. Paul and to help people 
just as he helped them. Do you think God will let 
me?’’ Of course this particular child has had unusually 
careful religious training. I am quite sure, however, 
that his case is by no means exceptional and that it 
furnishes unquestionable evidence of the fact that a 
little child may have a vital Christian experience. 

6. The position which I am here maintaining is not 
something new in Methodism, but has been held by 
our Methodist fathers from the very beginning, as 
the following quotations will show: 

Dr. Richard Watson, one of the great theologians of 
early Methodism: ‘‘We are bound to conclude that the 
kingdom of heaven in some sense is composed of them 
(little children). They are its subjects and partakers 
of its blessings; and if they are the subjects of his 
spiritual kingdom on earth, then, until the moment 
that by actual sin they bring personal condemnation 
upon themselves, they remain heirs of the kingdom of 
eternal glory; and if they become subjects of the latter 
dying, then a precious vital relation must have existed 
on earth between them and Christ, their Redeemer 
and Sanctifier.”’ 

Dr. Stephen G. Olin, one of the honored leaders of 
American Methodism in the middle of the nineteenth 
century: ‘‘We believe that God renews those infants 
who die and go to heaven before they know how to dis- 
cern the right hand from the left. This quite dissolves 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


the philosophical objection; there is no natural obstacle 
to the work of grace in a child.” 

Dr. W. P. Harrison, a prominent theologian of 
Southern Methodism half a century ago, in ‘‘The 
Living Christ,” issued by our Publishing House: ‘‘ God 
does not leave the soul of any little child to the un- 
questioned dominion and power of Satan. Under the 
laws of thought within the environments which are as 
various as the conditions which control the physical 
development of man the soul and its Redeemer meet; 
and, whatever may be the record of manhood or the 
issues of old age, the little child is placed, by the mercy 
of God, under the protecting shield of the Second 
Adam.” 

In a little book entitled ‘‘Christian Cradlehood,’’ 
by Dr. Richard Abbey, of the Mississippi Conference, 
issued by our Publishing House in 1881, we find the 
following striking passage: ‘‘I know of no natural reason 
why a child may not feel divine love as early as he is 
capable of feeling parental love. He is unable to define 
or understand it. It is a felt satisfaction of being good. 
This consciousness of doing right and of meeting ap- 
proval is a very early development and is what we 
mean in later years by ‘enjoying religion.” There is 
nothing in either nature or grace that inhibits its early 
beginning. Natural depravity appertains no more to 
cradle life than to youth or manhood. It is simply 
universal. The grace of Christ meets it in the cradle 
precisely as it does in maturer years. There is no more 
of a necessary sinful period somewhere in the first five 
or ten years than in later years.” 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


II. THE RELIGION OF EARLY CHILDHOOD 


The religion of the little child is just as real as that 
of the adult, and yet it differs from that of the adult 
as childhood differs from adulthood. ‘‘When I was a 
child,’”’ says St. Paul, ‘‘I spake as a child, I felt as a 
child, I thought asa child.” (1 Cor. 13:11.) He could 
not have spoken and felt and thought in any other way. 
It is a serious mistake for us to attempt to impose our 
adult experiences upon little children. Rather should 
we permit them, religiously and otherwise, to live out 
their own lives as children, understanding that it is by 
so doing that they are to prepare for the later experi- 
ences of youth, of young manhood and womanhood, 
and of adulthood. 

1. The child’s religion is not a matter of intellectual 
conviction reached through a process of reasoning, but 
rather the upspringing of the heart to meet the appeal 
of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the lives and 
through the teachings of those whom the child loves and 
trusts. It will be a long time before the metaphysical 
and theological questions about which older people 
concern themselves will trouble him. Meanwhile, 
however, if he is kept under proper influences and in a 
proper environment, his love for Christ and his loyalty 
to Christ will remain just as real and vital as those of 
people of maturer years. 

2. It would be unreasonable, however, to expect in 
the faith of the little child the vigor and stability that 
ought to characterize the faith of the adult Christian. 
A few years ago I decided that, instead of buying plants 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





in the spring for my garden, I would raise them myself. 
So I prepared the soil in boxes, put them in a warm 
nook in the basement of my residence, and planted the 
seeds of such vegetables and flowers as I wished to 
cultivate. In due time the seeds sprang up and the 
little plants were green and beautiful. I failed to 
realize, however, how delicate they were and how neces- 
sary it was that I should give them constant and proper 
attention. And so, it chancing one week that I was 
unusually busy, I neglected them for two or three days 
and, as a consequence, when I returned, found that 
every one of them had died. In the matter of tender- 
ness and delicacy the religious life of the little child 
may very well be compared with the life of those young 
plants. The plants would have soon grown into lusty 
stalks if they had been watered and fed and kept ina 
properly ventilated atmosphere. And so the spiritual 
life of the child will flourish and grow if it has the right 
kind of environment and the right kind of nurture and 
training, but without these it will soon weaken and die. 
The lad of three or four who is so devoted to his mother 
that he cannot bear to be absent from her for an hour 
would probably forget her altogether if she were to 
leave him for half a year. All of which means that we 
are not to content ourselves with mere beginnings, but 
that through the continuous employment of the educa- 
tional agencies previously described and the progres- 
sive adaptation of these agencies to the unfolding life we 
are to seek to enable the child to grow as the Master 
grew—‘‘in wisdom and stature and in favor with God 
and man.” 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


III]. THE PART OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


What part has the Sunday school in the evangeliza- 
tion of the little child? 

1. In almost every class of beginners or primaries 
will be found children whose religious nurture and 
training have been so neglected that it will be necessary 
for the teacher to begin at the very beginning. That 
is, it will be necessary for her in the case of each child 
to seek to make up for the failure of the home by en- 
deavoring through an intelligently directed educational 
process to awaken his religious nature and bring him 
into personal fellowship with the heavenly Father. 
Of course the opportunities which the Sunday school 
affords for accomplishing this are not to be compared 
with those offered in the home. And yet the trained 
and consecrated teacher, by a wise and diligent use of 
the limited time and opportunities at her command, 
may influence in a vital and permanent way the plastic 
young lives committed to her. For suggestions as to 
methods teachers are referred to properly accredited 
books dealing with the nurture and training of children 
in the beginners and primary departments. It may 
be remarked in passing, however, that the same general 
principles which apply to the religious awakening of 
the child in the home apply also in the Sunday school. 

2. Even in the case of the child who has received wise 
and careful religious training in the home, it is possible 
for the Sunday school effectively to supplement the 
work of the parents. For, besides the fact that the 
influence of the personality and work of the teacher, 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


whatever it may be, is just that much added to the 
training given in the home, is the fact that the school 
affords opportunities for widening the scope of the 
educational program. It affords opportunities, for 
instance, for group worship, for the development of 
group interests, and for teaching the child how to live 
with others, thus making it possible to begin to socialize 
his religion and to prepare him for taking his place in 
both Church and State. It is through the Sunday school 
that the child gets his first idea of the Church and of his 
broader social relationships. 

It thus appears that there are vast multitudes of 
little children who must be introduced to Christ by the 
Church if they are to know him at all, and that the 
Church may have a very important part in the religious 
development even of children whose homes are posi- 
tively and vitally Christian. 

3. It is evidently especially important that the 
teachers of beginners and primaries shall keep in close 
touch with the homes of their pupils and that they shall 
secure the intelligent codperation of their parents. 
This will require, in many cases, that while they are 
seeking to educate the pupils they must seek also to 
educate their fathers and mothers. And this will often 
mean awakening them to an adequate sense of their 
responsibility for the religious training of their children 
as well as helping them to prepare themselves for it. 


IV. Tue LITTLE CHILD AND THE CHURCH 


When it comes to the question of the relation of the 
little child to the Church, it must be confessed that the 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has no clearly 
defined policy. In the Ritual for the Baptism of In- 
fants, parts of which I have quoted in a previous 
chapter, it seems to be assumed that the baptized child 
is a member of the Church. For instance, the congrega- 
tion is exhorted to pray that the child ‘“‘may ever re- 
main in the fellowship of God’s holy Church”’; and in 
the succeeding prayer, which the minister is required to 
use, there is a petition that the child ‘‘may abide safe 
in the ark of Christ’s holy Church,’’ and another that 
‘he may ever remain in the number of God’s faithful and 
elect children.’’ As a matter of fact, however, baptized 
children are not counted as members of the Church, 
nor is any systematic effort made to keep a record of 
such children and to provide for their religious training. 

That this is a much more serious matter than appears 
on the surface will become at once apparent when we 
come to consider what consequences may flow from it. 
Think, for instance, what effect it may have upon the 
life of a little child who goes regularly to church and 
Sunday school with his parents, and who has always 
thought of himself as identified with them in every 
interest of life, to be told that in the matter that he 
regards as of supreme concern to them he has no part 
nor lot. I have heard of many instances in which little 
children who were growing up in religious homes were 
bewildered and troubled upon discovering that they 
did not belong to the Church. There are two possible 
reactions from such a discovery. The child may decide 
that, because he is outside of the fellowship to which his 
parents belong and is not yet old enough and intelligent 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


enough to get into this fellowship, he will entirely 
dismiss the matter as something that does not concern 
him. Perhaps it is in this way that the indifference of 
many children to the Church begins. On the other 
hand the child may insist on being formally received 
into the Church, and, if so, I think his desire should be 
granted, although it seems a pity that some way can- 
not be devised for giving little children their rightful 
place in the Church until they are old enough intelli- 
gently to take the vows of membership. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. What kind of being is the newly born babe? 
2. Why should the home be the first school of evangelism? 
3. Is it possible for a little child to be born from above? 
Explain your answer. 
4. Explain the difference bet ween conversion and regeneration. 
5. Need a child know when the process of his spiritual quick- 
ening begins? 
6. Give the result of your personal observation of the religion 
of childhood. 
7. What is the historic teaching of Methodism as to the re- 
ligious possibilities of early childhood? 
8. What are the characteristics of the little child’s religion? 
9. What part has the Sunday school in the evangelism of the 
little child? 
10. Discuss the relation of the little child to the Church, 


101 


CHAPTER VII 
LATER CHILDHOOD 


By later childhood I mean the period between the ages 
of nine and twelve. In this group there will be in most 
Sunday schools two general types, although each type 
will, of course, include several varieties. 

1. Group One will be composed of boys and girls 
who have been brought up in the nurture and admoni- 
tion of the Lord and who have already definitely entered 
upon the life of faith. Some of these will already have 
joined the Church. Others, while never having thought 
of themselves otherwise than as Christians, will not yet 
have raised the question of Church membership, either 
because their attention has not been definitely called 
to the matter or because they have regarded themselves 
as already in the Church. In the case of this group the 
problem of the junior worker is simply that of codperat- 
ing with the home in providing for the continuous 
normal development of a religious experience already 
begun. For of course all of these children will be found 
to have come from homes that are positively and vitally 
Christian. 

2. Group Two will be composed of boys and girls 
whose religious education has been partially or totally 
neglected. 

Since this course of lessons is designed primarily to 
furnish suggestions for initiating the Christian life 
rather than to give a comprehensive program of re- 

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EVANGELISM 1N THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


ligious instruction and training, our first concern is 
with this second group. 


I. DIFFICULTIES TO BE OVERCOME 


In dealing with these children our first aim, as in all 
types of evangelism, will be to awaken the religious 
and moral nature of each child and to bring him into 
a vital personal relation through faith with Jesus 
Christ. 

1. For a number of reasons the task will be found 
much more difficult than the religious awakening of the 
little child. 

(1) The ready responsiveness which is so strikingly 
characteristic of the child of tender years has already 
greatly diminished. 

(2) Perhaps there is no other period in the child’s 
life in which it is more difficult for the adult to under- 
stand him than in the junior age. The adolescent is 
beginning, at any rate, to share the interests and the 
viewpoint of manhood or womanhood, but the junior’s 
interests and viewpoint are all his own. A young girl 
who had an unusually vivid recollection of her later 
childhood said to the writer a few years ago: ‘‘When I 
was a child I found it impossible to understand grown-up 
people. When a particularly good thing came along, 
they never seemed to care anything about it; but they 
were always getting worked up over things that did not 
appear to me to be at all worth while.’’ And I am quite 
willing to admit that the father, at least, of this par- 
ticular girl was about as incapable of understanding her 
viewpoint as she was of understanding his. Perhaps 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


it is to the vague realization on the part of the child 
of this wide divergence in interest that we are to at- 
tribute the tendency to reticence which is so striking 
a characteristic of the junior, and especially of reticence 
in regard to his personal religious life. But whatever 
may be its cause, it increases immensely the junior 
worker’s difficulty in making really vital approaches 
to her pupils. 

(3) The junior child has much wider social contacts 
and a much wider range of interests than the beginner 
or primary possesses. He has his school, his clubs, 
and his circle of playmates, and is busily engaged in 
making all sorts of explorations into the strange and 
wonderful world in which he finds himself. Hence it 
is not nearly so easy to catch and hold his attention as 
it is to catch and hold the attention of the younger 
child. 

(4) The difficulty is greatly increased by his physical 
vitality, with its accompanying restlessness and demand 
for activity. For the junior age is primarily an age 
of abounding physical life. ‘‘Some one,”’ says Harts- 
horne in his ‘‘Childhood and Character,” ‘‘has sug- 
gested how to get an idea of the exuberant abundance 
of life and energy in the years of later childhood. 
Think of how you’d feel some fine crisp morning, 
after a good night’s rest, awake and ready for the day’s 
work. Then multiply your feeling of strength and 
energy by ten. You are ten times as hungry, ten times 
as desirous of shouting and singing, ten times as good- 
natured, ten times as full of mischief, ten times as 
eager for the next act. That is the way a boy feels.” 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Of course it is exceedingly difficult for such a creature 
to sit still or to give continuous attention to any matter 
that does not call for his own active codperation. 

(5) In many cases the child of this age has already 
fallen under the influence of evil companions and defi- 
nitely started in the wrong direction. 

(6) The situation is still further complicated by the 
fact that in the case of children of this group teachers 
can count on but little help from parents. For if all 
homes were such as those from which the children of 
Group One are drawn, Group Two would be so small 
as to be practically negligible. 

2. The following are some of the requisites for dealing 
successfully with boys and girls of this group. 

(1) The teacher’s own personality and character 
must’ be such as to command the respect and admira- 
tion of her pupils. This means, in the first place, that 
she must be true and open and sincere. There is no 
class of human beings that more readily detect or more 
heartily despise pretense of any kind than junior boys 
and girls. 

The teacher must also unite in her character the 
elements of strength and beauty—that is, she must be 
able to deal with her pupils both tenderly and firmly. 
Any indication of indecision or of inability to maintain 
order and discipline is sure to forfeit their respect. 

She must be cheerful, not cheerful simply in the 
sense that she forces herself to smile and say pleasant 
things, but cheerful in the sense in which one ought to 
be cheerful who draws her inspiration from daily 
fellowship with God and who looks at life through the 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


eyes of faith. Junior children cannot be won by a re- 
ligion that is somber and gloomy. They love sunlight 
and laughter and cheerful fellowship and cannot see 
why the worship of the heavenly Father should not 
add to the beauty and joyousness of life. 

Finally, her love for her pupils must be so real and 
vital that she will not need to tell them about it, be- 
cause it will express itself in the tones of her voice and 
in her whole manner and bearing toward them. The 
interest born of such love will do more than any course 
in psychology toward helping her to understand them, 
to establish relations of real vital friendship with them, 
and to find the easy passages to their hearts. 

(2) The junior worker must be sure that her entire 
curriculum—the curriculum of instruction, the cur- 
riculum of worship, and the curriculum of activity— 
answers to the real needs of her pupils’ lives. 

For instance, the understanding of the average 
junior is still exceedingly limited and his interests en- 
tirely concrete. Abstract doctrines and general prin- 
ciples are beyond the range of his comprehension. He 
is not even concerned about heroism as an abstract 
quality. He is deeply interested, however, in particular 
heroes and their acts and hence will respond readily and 
enthusiastically to the appeal of the heroic Christ and 
of the hero stories of the Bible and the Christian 
Church. Of course it will be the aim of the teacher to 
enable her pupils to see the ugliness of sin and to despise 
it and turn from it with loathing. But the method 
should, in the main, be positive rather than negative. 
That is, the spiritual vision of the children should be 

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increased and their consciences quickened by such a 
progressive revelation of Christ and his ideal as will 
call forth their admiration and love and trust, and in 
proportion as this is accomplished the ugliness of sin 
will become apparent to them. For the ugliness of sin 
becomes apparent to one only through comparison 
with the beauty of holiness. 

Juniors are not so lacking as they sometimes appear 
in the spirit of worship. But because of the restlessness 
due to their overflowing physical energy and of the fact 
that their minds are mainly occupied with the external 
world, services of worship must necessarily be brief 
and varied, moving forward without needless lagging 
and interruption, and they should be so planned as to 
enable the pupils, as far as possible, to participate in 
them. 

Likewise the activities that are provided for them 
should be directed to the accomplishment of ends that 
appeal to their normal interests. 

(3) All this implies that the successful teacher of 
juniors must know her pupils and be able to see from 
their viewpoint and to enter sympathetically into their 
lives. No one should undertake to work with juniors 
who has not carefully studied one or more such books 
as “A Study of the Junior Child,’ by Whitley, and 
“Junior Method in the Church School,’ by Powell. 
The teacher who is not willing to pay the price required 
for such preparation is lacking in that kind of realiza- 
tion of the importance of the task of leading young souls 
in the way of life that is essential to real success. 

But the teacher must also know her pupils individual- 

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ly, their personal traits, their home life, their special 
aptitudes and interests. The timid or reticent child 
cannot be dealt with in the same way as the forward or 
self-assertive child, nor the backward child in the same 
way as the unusually intelligent child. And every child, 
whatever may be his disposition or natural capacities, 
must be approached through some existing interest. 
The junior worker, therefore, must seek to discover 
what is already in the child’s mind and what he really 
cares for, and then she must be able to convince him 
that what is of interest to him is of interest to her also. 
A young man found it difficult to maintain order in 
a class of junior boys whom he was teaching in the 
Sunday school and to command their attention. 
After studying the situation carefully, he discovered 
that there was one lad who was evidently the leader of 
the group, and he determined to make a friend of this 
particular boy. Having learned that the boy delivered 
the evening paper on the street on which he lived, the 
teacher watched for an opportunity to engage him in 
conversation as he passed by on his afternoon round. 
The opportunity soon came, and then other opportuni- 
ties, until within a short while the teacher had learned 
a good deal about the boy’s life. He was the captain of 
a football team, and the teacher immediately became 
interested in this team and its doings. He inquired 
about its membership, its equipment, and where and 
when the games were played. By and by he was in- 
vited to attend some of these games and to act as um- 
pire, and of course these invitations were enthusiasticel- 
ly accepted. So step by step he won his way to the 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


heart of the young leader and his group, and, because 
he was interested in what concerned them, they became 
interested in what concerned him. From being the 
problem of the teacher the boy leader became his 
staunch friend and supporter. As a result confusion 
and inattention were soon changed into order and in- 
terest, and it was not long until all the members of the 
class declared their allegiance to Christ and were re- 
ceived into the Church. 

This incident illustrates several of the conditions 
of success in dealing with juniors. The teacher suc- 
ceeded in winning the personal admiration and con- 
fidence of his pupils and by so doing awakened their 
interest in the message which he sought to convey to 
them and in the Saviour whom he sought to reveal to 
them. And then, by engaging them in activities which 
were the normal expression of the impressions made by 
his teaching, he deepened and fixed these impressions 
until they became dominating influences in their lives 


II. THE CENTRAL AIM AND How To AcCcCOmPLIsH IT 


The whole effort of the junior worker should be to 
awaken the religious interest of her pupils, to develop 
in them an appreciation of Christian ideals, to encourage 
them in the cultivation of proper attitudes, and to 
center the whole life of each child about the personality 
of Christ. That is, her entire task is an evangelistic 
task. This does not mean that an attempt should be 
made to give each lesson a specifically evangelistic ap- 
plication. It does mean, however, that, whatever course 
of lessons she may chance to be using, her constant aim 

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should be to develop in each child love and reverence 
for Christ, a vital faith in Christ, a growing understand- 
ing of what loyalty to Christ demands, and an ever- 
increasing desire and ability to meet its demands. 

1. She should constantly pray and confidently ex- 
pect that, as a result of this process, the pupils will be 
brought into a vital personal relation with Christ, and 
she should watch for signs of growing interest in them 
and for the opportune moment to approach them with 
definite appeals for open declaration of their allegiance. 
In some instances it may be best to wait until the in- 
fluence of her teaching is recruited through the special 
season of evangelism appointed for the whole school. 
The teacher, however, should be on her guard against 
falling into the habit of waiting for such special seasons. 
The opportune moment is the moment when real vital 
interest has been awakened; and, if she is really faithful 
in her work, that may come at any time. The utmost 
care should be taken to see that when the appeal is pre- 
sented the circumstances are as favorable as they can 
possibly be made. A quiet room and an atmosphere of 
reverence are absolutely essential; and, if such condi- 
tions cannot be secured in the school on Sunday, the 
teacher should provide for a meeting at some hour 
during the week. 

Whether the appeal to pupils should be made in 
private, personal interviews, or to the class as a whole 
depends upon circumstances. If there is a natural 
leader in the class, it may be best to approach him 
privately if favorable conditions for doing so can be 
brought about. For instance, a quiet walk in the coun- 

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try, in which subjects of common interest and pleasant 
conversation may be found in birds and animals and 
trees and flowers, may readily become a fitting oc- 
casion for drawing the child’s attention to the Creator 
to whom we are indebted for all of our blessings and for 
leading up to conversation about the duty of giving our 
lives in loving obedience to him. In case the teacher 
succeeds in her endeavor, the way will be open for an 
affective approach to the entire class the following 
Sunday. There will be other cases, however, in which 
the teacher will be so sure of her ground that she may 
with confidence venture upon making her first appeal 
to the class as a whole. In all cases it should be made 
in a simple and unconventional way, as if it were taken 
for granted that to become a follower of Christ was the 
perfectly natural and proper thing for every right- 
thinking boy and girl. 

Their acknowledgment of Jesus as the Lord of their 
lives having been made and their allegiance to him 
openly declared, the teacher should feel free to engage 
her pupils in friendly conversation about the meaning 
of the Christian life. The conversation, however, 
should be directed mainly toward the positive and 
concrete aspects of this life. They must clearly under- 
stand that there are many things which a Christian 
cannot do, but care should be taken to interpret re- 
ligion to them in terms of privilege and opportunity 
rather than in terms of prohibition. And it should be 
kept constantly in mind that they are interested in the 
outward expression of religion rather than in the analy- 
sis of inward experiences. Of course they have such 

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experiences, but they do not put them under the micro- 
scope for the purpose of minutely studying them. 
In other words, they are not given to introspection and 
self-examination, and hence are apt either to become 
mere actors and imitators or to fall into embarrassment 
and confusion when we attempt to get them to talk 
about their religious experiences. 

2. I have spoken of the fact that junior boys and 
girls may need to be converted as well as regenerated. 
That is, they may have definitely entered upon the 
wrong road, so that it may be necessary for them to face 
about and start in another direction. It should be 
observed, however, that children of this age, however 
unfortunate they may have been in their previous train- 
ing, are never sinners in the same sense in which an 
adult may beasinner. They have not definitely chosen 
the life of wrongdoing and rebellion against God, 
but have simply yielded to wayward impulses. There 
are a number of words in the Bible that are translated 
by our English word ‘‘sin.’”’ One of these means simply 
‘‘missing the mark.’”’ Children are sinners in the sense 
which this word implies; they have made no definite 
choice of evil, but have simply yielded to outward ap- 
peals to their lower natures. 

Experiences of deep penitence and of sudden con- 
version are, therefore, to be expected of them only in 
exceptional cases. A junior child may be acutely 
penitent for a definite act of sin, but such a sense of 
being a sinner as is often felt by adolescents as well as 
by adults is an unusual experience for children of this 
age. In fact, as has already been noted, their thoughts 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL . 


are occupied almost entirely with concrete objects 
and situations and their understanding of such abstract 
terms as “sin’”’ and ‘‘salvation”’ is exceedingly limited. 
The junior’s decision for Christ may, therefore, as a 
rule, be expected to come as the quiet culmination of a 
progressively developing process of spiritual awakening. 

3. After the junior has been brought to a definite 
surrender to Christ, his attention should be called to 
the reasons for uniting with the Church. For the junior 
age is the opportune time for taking this important step, 
since, while the junior is still in some sense an individual- 
ist, the group spirit has already begun to develop in 
him. Practically all boys and girls of this age are mem- 
bers of gangs and clubs of one kind or another, and 
loyalty to the groups to which they belong is one of their 
striking characteristics. I read recently a letter from 
a ten-year-old girl that was taken up almost entirely 
with an account of a kind of informal club to which she 
belonged. The members had devised a lot of club 
secrets, had discovered a private meeting place which 
was supposed to be unknown to their elders, and had 
mapped out an extensive course of nature studies. 
In other words, junior boys and girls are in process of 
becoming socialized and of learning how to live with 
others. And especially do they desire to be associated 
with others in doing things in which they are interested. 

It is entirely possible, therefore, to present the Church 
to them in a way that will make a strong appeal to 
them. In the Indiana Survey referred to in a previous 
chapter 6,194 names from forty-three States were 
secured with verified dates of birth and accession to the 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





Church. And it is a significant fact that the curve of 
accession for the 2,234 Methodists included in this list 
reaches its highest point in the last junior year. This 
means that under proper conditions we may expect 
a very large proportion of our junior boys and girls 
to unite with the Church, and it is quite certain that 
this expectation is actually realized in many of our 
best schools. A junior superintendent who had been 
in service for a number of years wrote me some time 
ago that practically all of her pupils had been received 
into the Church before being promoted to the Inter- 
mediate Department. 

In the instruction designed to awaken in juniors a 
desire to become members of the Church the negative 
demands of Church membership will require a certain 
amount of attention. They should not, however, be 
put in the forefront. That is, they should not be so 
presented as to make the children feel that the chief 
function of the Church is to hedge about their lives with 
all sorts of prohibitions. On the contrary, the Church 
should be presented to them as a challenge to codpera- 
tion in a great and glorious task, a task a thousand 
times bigger and finer than that of the Chamber of 
Commerce, the Farmers’ or Merchants’ Exchange, and 
all the clubs and lodges they ever heard about. To 
this end the teacher should make a brief survey of the 
various kinds of service which the Church in the name 
of Christ is seeking to render humanity, and should 
show her pupils that joining the Church means that 
they are to have a part in the big task of relieving dis- 
tress and suffering, abolishing injustice and wrong- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


doing, and bringing the whole world into one great 
brotherhood under the leadership of Jesus Christ. 

Through such a course the child may not only be led 
to desire membership in the Church, but may be defi- 
nitely prepared for it. Of course it will be necessary 
before the act of formal acceptance to explain the vows 
that are to be taken and carefully and intelligently to 
provide for making the occasion as beautiful and im- 
pressive as possible. This, however, will be considered 
in a subsequent lesson. 


III. THE JUNIOR CHILD IN THE CHURCH 


The child in the Church is still but a babe in Christ, 
and it will require years of patient teaching and train- 
ing to bring him to the fullness of Christian manhood. 

1. His religion is rather a matter of personal loyalty 
than of vital intellectual conviction. His understand- 
ing of Christian doctrines and of the larger practical 
and social implications of Christian discipleship is 
exceedingly limited. These, therefore, must be gradual- 
ly unfolded to him as his intellectual and spiritual 
capacities develop. Like the Boy of Nazareth, as he 
increases in stature he must increase also in wisdom, 
and it is the business of the Sunday school to furnish 
the conditions of such healthy and normal growth. 

2. The junior child’s will is still unstable and his 
emotions ephemeral; while at the same time, as has al- 
ready been noted, he is fairly bubbling over with 
physical energy. We should not be surprised, therefore, 
to find in his life what appear to us gross inconsistencies. 
The teacher, for instance, need not be disappointed if 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


the boys in her class who have expressed their purpose 
to be followers of Christ and their desire to enter into 
the fellowship of the Church are discovered a few min- 
utes later pulling each other’s hair or shooting paper 
balls across the room or if they are found the next day 
engaged in a hot dispute on the playground. Such 
manifestations should not be regarded as indications 
of lack of sincerity, but rather as expressions of the 
abounding energy of beings who have but limited 
powers of moral discrimination and have not yet 
acquired those habits of self-control which may come 
in later years. The cultivation of such habits should be 
one of the teacher’s aims, and along with it should go 
the cultivation of such qualities as chivalry, generosity, 
helpfulness, and coédperation, and of such attitudes as 
trust in God, happiness, gratitude, honor, obedience, 
courage, sympathy, and loyalty. This means that the 
teacher should not only talk to her pupils about these 
things, but that she should seek in every possible way 
to provide opportunities for their expression. This is 
necessary for two reasons. 

In the first place, generalizations are impossible for 
children of this age. For instance, it is not sufficient 
to set before them the ideal of honesty, but they must 
be shown what this ideal requires in all sorts of concrete 
situations—that it not only means that they must not 
take what does not belong to them, but also that they 
must not cheat in examinations nor deceive their 
parents nor take an unfair advantage of those on the 
other side in a game of ball or marbles. 

In the second place, it is only through continuous 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


practice that right ideals may be established and right 
attitudes made habitual. The teacher, therefore, 
should take pains to call the attention of her pupils to 
opportunities that come up in the class and to such 
opportunities as are likely to come up in their everyday 
social relations, in the home, in the school, on the play- 
grounds, for putting into practice the virtues that are 
illustrated in the life of Jesus and in the lives of many 
of his followers. She should also be on the lookout for 
opportunities to engage them in such special activities 
as will serve as normal channels for the expression of 
the types of interest that are awakened within them 
through vital contact with Jesus. Many such oppor- 
tunities may be found in connection with the local 
Church and community. Others may be found in the 
larger activities and enterprises of the denomination 
as a whole, especially in the field of missions. Valuable 
help in discovering such opportunities may be obtained 
through community surveys, through literature pre- 
pared by the various denominational boards, and by 
the reading of such books as ‘“‘The Project Principle 
in Religious Education,’’ by Shaver, and “‘One Hun- 
dred Projects for the Church School,”’ by Towner. 

3. Officers and teachers should unite in a common aim 
to generate in the Sunday school an atmosphere of 
friendliness and reverence. Such an atmosphere is as 
essential to the spiritual development of the child as 
fresh air and sunshine are to his physical development. 
And it is difficult to create such an atmosphere in a 
single class unless it pervades the entire school. This 
means that it must be the product of a group spirit, 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





that all the official staff of the school must themselves 
be earnestly and vitally religious, and that their bearing 
toward one another and toward the pupils must be 
such as to make clear the fact that Christ is the center 
of the friendly circle and that all hearts turn to him 
with love and adoration. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. What two general groups of juniors are mentioned in this 
chapter? 

2. What difficulties in approaching Group Two are mentioned? 
Can you think of others? 

3. What requisites for dealing successfully with children of 
this group are mentioned? What others would you suggest? 

4. Mention some of the ways which the junior worker may 
employ in gaining adequate understanding of her pupils. What 
plan have you found most effective? 

5. What plans have you found most effective in appealing 
to juniors to decide to be Christians? 

6. What type of conversion experience may normally be 
expected of juniors? 

7. What is the best way of presenting to juniors the matter 
of joining the Church? 

8. What should be expected of juniors and what methods of 
dealing with them should be employed after they have become 
members of the Church? 


118 


CHAPTER VIII 
EARLY AND MIDDLE ADOLESCENCE 


I. THE DAWN oF ADOLESCENCE 


SOMETIME between the beginning of the twelfth and 
the end of the thirteenth year the child enters upon the 
most momentous change that ever comes to a human 
life. For it is during this period that those physical 
functions which are related to the perpetuation of the 
race begin to awaken, and with their awakening the 
unfolding life is overwhelmed with a veritable flood of 
new emotions and interests and problems. It is the 
beginning of full selfhood, the completion of the cycle 
of physical and psychical powers which constitute one 
a separate, self-directing, and responsible individual. 
But while it marks a new stage in the development of 
self-consciousness, it marks also a new stage in the 
development of social consciousness. As the youth 
comes to realize in a new way his separate individuality 
and his right to live out his own life, he comes also to a 
new realization of his relation to others, and fellowship, 
life-sharing, and social responsibility take on wider 
and deeper meanings. He begins to ask why, not in the 
light and careless fashion of early childhood, but witha 
grim earnestness that will not allow him to rest until 
some satisfactory answer is discovered. Abstractions 
and generalizations begin to interest him. He becomes 
an idealist. He dreams dreams and builds castles in 
the air. He is enamored of perfection, haunted by 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


visions of truth and beauty and triumphant manhood, 
and cannot be persuaded that they are beyond the 
possibility of realization. And naturally and inevitably 
his soul is swept by all sorts of conflicting emotions. 
Faith and doubt, hope and despair, exhilaration and 
depression, arrogant self-confidence and painful self- 
depreciation contend for the mastery of his soul. He 
is confused, perplexed, tossed to and fro by contradicto- 
ry impulses, the meaning of which he does not under- 
stand. But whatever clouds and mists may gather 
above him and about him, the gleam still shines before 
him and beckons him onward and upward. 

The essential quality of his ideals and visions will 
necessarily be largely determined by his previous as- 
sociations and training. These may have been such 
as to have led him to the conclusion that the supreme 
achievement in life would be to become an elegant loafer 
or a successful crook or a noted desperado. In other 
words, his estimate as to what is really admirable and 
worth while may be utterly and totally erroneous. 
But, however sadly he may have been misled by his 
former teachers and guides, he is still, according to the 
light that he possesses, an dealist bent on making his 
dreams come true. I once heard ex-Senator W. R. 
Webb, who has been for more than half a century at 
the head of the most famous training school for boys 
in the South, say that, among all the thousands of boys 
with whom he had been brought into intimate contact; 
he had never known one who meant to be a 
good-for-nothing. Many of them, because of wrong or 
inadequate training, had very erroneous conceptions 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


as to what the real meaning and the true values of life 
are, but every one of them intended to achieve success 
as he understood it. 


II. A CrITICAL PERIOD 


We should naturally expect that such a crisis would 
be found upon investigation to mark an exceedingly 
critical and important epoch in the developing life, 
and this expectation is justified both by the collective 
experience of mankind and by modern scientific re- 
search. 

1. Take, for instance, the profoundly significant fact 
that for untold ages half-savage tribes, as well as great 
civilized peoples, have followed the custom of initiating 
their youth into the mysteries of their religion soon 
after the dawn of adolescence. A Jewish boy, we re- 
member, became ‘‘a son of the law’’ at the age of 
twelve, and Christian Churches that practice confirma- 
tion administer this rite to those brought up under their 
instruction at about the same age. 

2. Recent investigations in regard to this period have 
brought out the following facts: 

(1) It is an age of excessive criminality. A large 
proportion of those who are convicted as lawbreakers 
begin their criminal careers before the close of middle 
adolescence. 

(2) It is the age in which the greatest losses occur 
to the Sunday school. Researches carried on in many 
widely separated localities show that a fearfully large 
percentage of those who have been regular attendants 
at Sunday school during early and later childhood 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


drop out between twelve and sixteen. The Indiana 
Survey, previously referred to, revealed the fact that 
in the urban schools investigated the tendency to break 
away began in the thirteenth year, that in the rural 
schools it began in the twelfth year, and that in both 
types the elimination in the case of boys proceeded so 
rapidly that more than two-thirds of those who were 
members of Sunday schools at twelve dropped out be- 
fore reaching the age of seventeen. While the percent- 
ages for girls differed considerably from those for boys, 
they showed the same tendency to a steady decline 
during the period of early and middle adolescence. 

(3) It is the period in which a larger number of people 
unite with the Church than in any other. Of the 6,194 
cases investigated in the Indiana Survey, about 41 
per cent became members of the Church between 
twelve and seventeen. This is probably not far from 
the average for the Church as a whole; and if so, about 
thirty per cent more persons become Church members 
during these six years than in all the years that follow. 


III. SomE ADOLESCENT CHARACTERISTICS 


It is evident from these facts that the intermediate- 
senior age is a period of peculiar danger and that it is 
also a period of special opportunity for those who are 
interested in the evangelistic work of the Church in the 
building of the kingdom of God. All this may be made 
clearer by a somewhat more careful study of certain 
of the adolescent characteristics mentioned above. 

1. The awakening of the sense of selfhood leads 
naturally to a tendency to self-assertion and rebellion 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


against all sorts of external restraints. Boys and girls 
who, up to this time, have been reasonably docile and 
obedient often become stubborn and self-willed and 
resentful of authority. Of course such an attitude is 
fraught with serious peril and may lead to disastrous 
consequences. And yet, when we come to study the 
causes which lie back of it, it becomes at once apparent 
that, instead of being taken as a sign of innate mean- 
ness, as is too often the case, it should be regarded as a 
necessary stage in the development of individual life. 
The necessity for cheerful obedience to rightful au- 
thority is one of the lessons which every one must learn 
in order to attain a complete and useful life, and this 
lesson we must manage to bring home to our boys and 
girls. But self-confidence, individuality, and personal 
initiative are also essential to successful living. We do 
not want our youth to become mere imitators and fol- 
lowers. We want them to learn to think for themselves, 
to face courageously their own problems and responsi- 
bilities, and to become creators and leaders. The 
method of dealing with them, therefore, should not be 
that of repression, but of sympathetic guidance. They 
have now reached the age of reason, and we should seek 
so to win their respect and confidence that we may be 
able to show them to what end we are seeking to direct 
them and why certain kinds of discipline and self- 
restraint are necessary to the attainment of these ends. 
Many parents and teachers fail sadly at this point. 
Instead of respecting the individuality of the teen-age 
boys and girls for whose destiny they are in a measure 
responsible and patiently and tactfully seeking to lead 
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them toward the goal which they desire that they shall 
attain, they undertake by all sorts of compulsion 
to force them to act as they think young people ought 
to act. The result may be disastrous in either one or 
two directions. In the case of the pliant and yielding 
youth it may effectually destroy all independence and 
power of initiative and make of him a permanent weak- 
ling. In the case of the vigorous and aggressive youth 
it may lead to defiance and rebellion. Almost any 
intelligent observer can call to mind illustrations of 
both of these types. 

2. Again, it is almost inevitable that the first at- 
tempts of the youth to discover the reasons that lie 
back of the things which he has been taught to believe 
and to do should lead in most cases to bewildered and 
painful perplexity and in some cases to harassing and 
paralyzing doubt. 

(1) Doctor James Bissett Pratt thinks that a great 
deal of so-called adolescent doubt is entirely superfi- 
cial. Teen-age boys and girls, he maintains, learn 
from their teachers and from the books they read 
that they are passing through an age of doubt and hear 
their associates talking glibly about their intellectual 
difficulties. So they decide that doubt for them is the 
natural and proper thing and that in this, as in other 
matters of common social convention, they must con- 
form to type. There is probably a good deal of truth 
in this contention. For it is a mistake to assume that 
the average youth—or the average adult either, for that 
matter—finds himself under any intellectual compulsion 
to rationalize either his religion or any other fundamen- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


tal experience of his life. As a matter of fact, the aver- 
age person, either young or old, is very much inclined to 
accept the customs and beliefs and standards and ideals 
that are handed down to him, or that are current in the 
circle in which he moves, without raising any serious 
questions about them. And this is particularly true of 
religious beliefs, which are generally associated with 
the unquestionable reality and satisfaction of reli- 
gious experience. 

(2) There is always a considerable minority, however, 
who find themselves driven by an inner necessity to ask 
why they should believe certain things and adhere to 
certain practices and reject others. The writer was 
brought up in a Christian home and in a simple, rural 
community in which practically everybody believed 
implicitly in the Bible as God’s revelation to man. 
So far as he now recalls, he never in his childhood heard 
its authority challenged. And yet sometime between 
the age of twelve and the age of fourteen he found him- 
self involved in a maze of terrifying uncertainty as to 
everything that he had been taught. How he was tem- 
porarily delivered from the perplexity into which he had 
fallen need not be considered here, the point of emphasis 
being simply the fact that these doubts arose without 
any suggestion from the outside. That many earnest 
and sincerely religious boys and girls pass through a 
similar experience is beyond question. 

As the thoughtful youth advances from early to 
middle and later adolescence his doubts often take on 
a different complexion and become still more serious 
and bewildering. For then he begins to face problems 

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that are much less easy of solution than those by which 
he was confronted in the earlier period, problems grow- 
ing out of his relation to a living world in which every- 
thing is in a state of perpetual change. If we were ina 
static world, it would be comparatively easy for each 
generation to hand down to the succeeding generation 
a definite set of opinions expressed in terms that need 
never be changed and that would need only to be memo- 
rized and comprehended by the young of each new age. 
But the situation is very different in a world whose 
most striking characteristics are unceasing flux and 
movement. Men are forever discovering new facts 
or larger meanings in and applications of facts already 
known, and, as a result, our institutions, our industrial 
organizations and methods, our social customs and 
relations, our world outlook, and even the very language 
through which we express our thoughts and emotions 
are constantly changing. Such changes necessarily 
require all sorts of intellectual readjustments. Truth 
abides unchanged through all ages. Christ remains 
the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. But each 
generation must interpret both in terms of its own life 
experiences and must find out for itself how its new 
discoveries are to be fitted into and made to harmonize 
with its inherited beliefs. And the fact that the earnest 
and intelligent youth of each age must face this big and 
bewilderingly difficult task must never be lost sight of 
by those who seek to guide them in the way of life and 
establish them in their religious faith. 

(3) Account should also be taken of the fact that ado- 
lescent doubts, even when they are the result of sugges- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


tion of one kind or another, are often quite real and need 
to be dealt with intelligently and tactfully. Indeed, the 
very fact that doubters of this kind are much less 
serious in their quest for truth than are those described 
in the preceding paragraphs often makes it all the more 
difficult to handle them successfully. 

(4) Specific suggestions as to methods of dealing with 
these various types of doubt will be taken up in the next 
chapter, the thing upon which I wish to insist here being 
the importance of dealing with all of them intelligently 
and sympathetically. This means, for one thing, that, 
instead of lumping them together and branding them 
as heinous sins, we are to seek to understand each 
individual case and to treat it in the way that promises 
to bring about the surest and speediest cure. For, 
while there are without question cases in which youth- 
ful doubt is in part an apology for willful disregard of 
recognized ideals, such cases are probably exceptional. 
In most instances it is brought about in one of the ways 
mentioned above. That is, it is the result of the sincere 
efforts of immature minds either to translate the naive, 
unquestioning faith of childhood into the rational and 
stable faith of dawning manhood and womanhood or to 
harmonize their inherited beliefs with a lot of new 
knowledge that has come into their possession. 

The impulse that prompts such efforts is entirely 
laudable, however crude and awkward may be these 
initial endeavors. The baby would never learn to walk 
who never tried to walk. Instead, therefore, of attempt- 
ing to carry him forever in our arms, we encourage him 
to try his own feeble and tottering legs even at the risk 

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of getting a few falls and bumps. Meanwhile, however, 
we keep close by his side and lend him such help as may 
be required in order to make sure that no serious harm 
shall befall him. And if he stumbles a bit, we do not 
scold him, but encourage him to try again. 

Just so we should treat our older boys and girls who 
are trying to get a firmer and a more intelligent grasp of 
“the faith which was once for all delivered unto the 
saints.’’ Often the most disastrous thing we can do 
is to make them feel that, because they are perplexed, 
they are condemned sinners. Many have been driven 
in this way into permanent skepticism. What they 
need is not repression and rebuke, but encouragement 
and guidance. We should seek to help them to under- 
stand that their doubts are not the results of their 
superior wisdom and mental ability, but are simply 
such difficulties as frequently arise when young people 
whose experience and information are exceedingly 
limited first undertake seriously to grapple with the 
great problems of life. At the same time we should 
teach them that, instead of tamely yielding to their 
doubts, they should, like the hero of Tennyson’s “In 
Memoriam,”’ resolutely fight the specters of the mind 
and conquer them—in other words, that it is not only 
their right but their imperative duty to will to believe 
the things that make for their salvation and for the 
salvation of the world. For the rest, it is our business 
to supply them with such rational motives and to bring 
them under the power of such gracious influences, 
human and divine, as will enable them to achieve the 
victory which we desire for them. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


3. Another characteristic of youth to which attention 
has been called is its idealism. Because the eager ex- 
pectation that kindles in the heart of the adolescent is 
but slightly restrained as yet by those habits of caution 
which develop in later life, he is inclined to all sorts of 
reckless and daring experiments. He is impatient of 
delay. He is inclined to regard prudence as a species of 
timidity which merits only contempt. Better the des- 
perate and fatal ‘Charge of the Light Brigade,’’ he is 
apt to think, than waiting behind bulwarks for a more 
favorable occasion. 

As a consequence of this tendency to rash and heed- 
less adventure many gallant barks that set sail in the 
morning with confidence and enthusiasm soon go to 
wreck on the breakers. The world is full of these 
wrecks, pathetic witnesses of high hopes shattered and 
high ambitions which ended in tragedy. 

And yet what an opportunity this same characteristic 
of youth offers to the Church! For where else can we 
find an ideal that would bear one moment’s comparison 
in its appeal to the dreaming, aspiring, longing souls 
of our boys and girls with the ideal of Jesus? And what 
other task so thrilling in its challenge as that of be- 
coming Christ’s fellow worker in building on the earth 
a triumphant kingdom of God? 

Here again our work, as teaching evangelists, is to 
see that a fine, normal impulse, instead of being allowed 
to go astray, is directed to proper ends and guided into 
proper channels. 

4. One more characteristic of youth that may be 
mentioned is the awakening of the social nature. The 

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adolescent spells friendship with a capital ‘‘F.’”’ He 
longs for companionship and readily forms deep and 
ardent attachments. This makes him peculiarly suscep- 
tible to social influences; and if these influences chance 
to be bad, they easily lead him astray. Herein lies 
one of the greatest perils of youth. But herein also lies 
what is perhaps the supreme opportunity of the Church 
in its relation to adolescents. For, if they are responsive 
to unworthy friendships, they are also responsive to 
those that are ennobling. They are still hero wor- 
shipers; and, while they may easily be led through the 
manifestation of certain striking personal qualities to 
admire and follow men of ignoble character, they are 
quite as ready to yield their allegiance to the noble and 
worthy, provided they are approached in the right way. 
This at once suggests a number of considerations that 
are exceedingly important for those who are seeking 
to lead boys and girls of this age into the Christian 
life. It will be sufficient barely to enumerate these 
considerations here. 

(1) The first to be mentioned is the importance of 
the teacher’s own personality and the necessity of 
approaching his pupil through vital and intimate 
personal friendship. 

(2) The next is the possibility of utilizing the friendly 
atmosphere of the Church, the Sunday school, and 
the class as effective evangelistic agencies. 

(3) Most significant of all, however, is the fact that 
Christ, if he be adequately revealed, exactly satisfies 
the dominant longing of the heart of youth. For the 
quest of the adolescent is for the ideal of heroism, and 

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nowhere else is this ideal fully personified except in 
Jesus Christ. The youth yearns, not for friendship only, 
but for ideal friendship; and, in spite of all the sneering 
skepticism of the world, he continues steadfastly to 
believe in it. The blossoming period of this high faith 
and aspiration is a peculiarly opportune time for reveal- 
ing to him Jesus Christ as the supreme and all-sufficient 
Friend, the Friend in whose love and companionship 
all his dreams may be realized. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. Discuss in general terms the meaning of adolescence. 

2. Consider all the facts you can recall tending to show that 
this is a period (a) of unusual danger and (6) of unusual oppor- 
tunity. 

3. Discuss briefly the four characteristics of adolescence 
specially considered in this chapter. 

4. Discuss the differences between early and middle adoles- 
cence. 

5. Discuss the following question: What significance have the 
facts here presented for the teacher of religion? 


131 


CHAPTER IX 


EARLY AND MIDDLE ADOLESCENCE 
(CONTINUED) 


THE previous chapter was devoted to a study of 
some of the important characteristics of early and mid- 
dle adolescence. With this study as a background, 
we may now proceed to a consideration of some of the 
practical methods of dealing with boys and girls of 
this age. 


I. GENERAL ADAPTATION OF EVANGELISTIC AGENCIES 


Let us in the beginning remind ourselves once more 
of what we are seeking to accomplish. Our aim is to 
bring these boys and girls to a living, personal faith in 
Christ as their Lord and Saviour and to help them 
toward an increasing appreciation of the ideals of 
Christ and an increasing understanding and practice 
of the teachings of Christ. 

Before beginning this study the reader should care- 
tully review what is said in Chapter III about evangel- 
istic agencies, meanwhile keeping in mind the fact that, 
while all of these agencies are to be used in the evangel- 
ization of adolescents, careful attention must be given 
to the adaptation of each to the requirements of adoles- 
cent life. 

1. The fact that boys and girls of this age are pecul- 
iarly responsive to the appeal of friendship gives the 
teacher or pastor a unique opportunity of reaching 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





them through his personal influence. It is generally 
agreed by those who have made a careful study of this 
period from the religious viewpoint that nothing else 
counts for so much in the educational process as the 
character of the teacher made effective through real 
vital friendship. It is often assumed that a great gulf is 
fixed between the adolescent and the adult over which 
neither can pass, that neither can understand the other, 
and that therefore intimate friendship between them 
is impossible. That there are difficulties in the way 
of mutual understanding is beyond question. Many 
parents lose their hold on their children, many teachers 
on their pupils, because of inability on each side to 
understand the other. I do not believe, however, 
that such a condition is necessary. On the contrary, 
I believe that the gulf between youth and adulthood 
may be bridged and that the twain may meet in mutual 
appreciation and friendship. The initiative, however, 
must be made by the parent or pastor or teacher. 
He has already passed through the varied experiences 
of youth and ought, therefore, to be able, by refreshing 
his memory through reading and personal association 
and observation, to approach those who are still in the 
midst of these experiences. To the youth, on the other 
hand, the experiences of the adult are a terra incognita, 
and it is only step by step that he can come to a real 
understanding of the viewpoint of his elders. But he 
will readily come to a kind of intuitive appreciation 
of the fact that his father or his mother or his teacher 
understands him and is in vital sympathy with him, 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





and this furnishes sufficient ground for a real friendship 
between them. 

(1) Friendship with youth must be on a basis some- 
what different from friendship with the younger child. 
It must be real comradeship and not the gracious 
condescension of a superior to an inferior. The teacher 
of adolescents who cannot be a real companion of his 
pupils, sharing all their normal interests, cannot be- 
come an effective leader. 

(2) The successful leader of youth must be the kind 
of person whom healthy-minded boys and girls admire. 
All young people are enamored of physical strength 
and prowess. It would be well, therefore, if every 
teacher of adolescents could be an Apollo Belvedere 
or a Juno Sospita. This, however, is by no means es- 
sential; for experience proves that intelligence, pluck, 
and force of character may more than make up for lack 
of physical vigor. No youth would think of withhold- 
ing his admiration from the hero of Trafalgar because 
he was a physical weakling. We knew a young pastor 
who became the hero of a group of adolescent boys 
and girls notwithstanding the fact that he was a crip- 
ple and small of stature. For, in spite of his physical 
limitations, he not only planned and directed their sports, 
but actually took part in them. Those who have made 
a study of boys’ clubs and gangs tell us that the lead- 
ers of these groups are often chosen solely on the basis 
of their mental and moral qualifications and that in 
many cases those selected are by no means conspicuous 
in the matter of physical strength. 

(3) Since the fundamental aim of the teacher is to 

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lead his pupils to a living faith in Christ, he must not 
only be thoroughly loyal to Christ, but must in some 
measure illustrate the Christ ideal in his own life. The 
mingled strength and beauty of this ideal can in no 
other way be so effectively revealed as through personal 
character. 

2. As regards the content of instruction the principle 
of adaptation requires that those aspects of our Lord’s 
life and teachings which answer to the intellectual and 
spiritual needs of youth shall be placed in the forefront. 

(1) They are dreaming of ideal manhood and at the 
same time are inclined to interpret the ideal in terms 
of heroic daring and achievement. Show them Christ 
as the ideal Man and the ideal Hero, ‘‘the purest among 
the mighty and the mightiest among the pure, who with 
his pierced hands lifted empires off their hinges and 
turned the course of history into new channels,’’ but 
who also was tender to the poor and lowly and loved 
little children and took them up in his arms and blessed 
them. 

(2) They long for friendship, vital, intimate, satisfy- 
ing. Reveal Christ to them as the one all-sufficient 
Friend, the Friend who is always near, always under- 
stands, never betrays nor disappoints. And show 
then how through trust and self-surrender they may 
come into a vital personal relation with him. 

(3) In many cases boys and girls of this age are pain- 
fully conscious of a wide discrepancy between the 
ideals they cherish and their actual achievements in 
conduct. Often they are overwhelmed with a sense 
of sin and of their utter helplessness in the face of the 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


temptations that beset them. Those who have a vivid 
recollection of their own youth will readily understand 
me when I say that there is no class of human beings 
who suffer more poignantly as a result of their recog- 
nized limitations and shortcomings than adolescents. 
Christ should be revealed to them, therefore, not only 
as a Friend who understands them, pities them, loves 
them with an everlasting love, but also as a Saviour 
who is willing and able to deliver them and keep them. 
Illustrations of what he may do for those who trust 
him and long to be like him and to serve and triumph 
as he served and triumphed may be drawn from the 
Bible, from the history of the Church, and from per- 
sonal observation. 

(4) Adolescents want to engage in great enterprises 
involving adventure, daring, and self-sacrifice; and an 
enterprise is all the more challenging in its appeal to 
them if it involves helping others. Knight-errantry 
was a product of the youth of our modern world, and 
the spirit of which it was the expression is reproduced 
in the heart of each generation of boys and girls. We 
should seek, therefore, to show them that the call of 
Christ is a call to service, to self-sacrifice, to high and 
heroic daring, and that he who enlists under the banner 
of Christ enlists in the biggest and the most important 
undertaking that was ever launched on the earth. 
And, because of their widening social interest, this is 
the opportune time to begin to explain to them more 
fully and definitely than is possible in the case of junior 
children what this undertaking involves, that it means 
working with God for the banishment of injustice and 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


ignorance and greed and selfishness in all its hideous 
forms and for bringing the world into one great broth- 
erhood of peace and good will under the leadership of 
Jesus Christ. There are not many normal youths who 
will not respond with eager enthusiasm to the appeal 
of such a program if it is presented to them in terms 
that they can understand. 

3. As to the method of instruction, the principle of 
adaptation requires that the personality and ideals of 
Christ shall be presented concretely rather than as a 
series of abstract propositions. That is, they should be 
presented in the form of vivid word pictures, portraying 
and interpreting incidents in the life of Christ and 
stories drawn from Church history illustrating the 
meaning of these incidents. 

Objection has often been made to the use of what is 
known as extra-Biblical material in religious education. 
Those who raise such objection, however, overlook the 
fact that one of the most effective ways of making the 
Christian message clear and vital to the child or youth 
is through biographical pictures showing how the prin- 
ciples taught by Christ work out in human life. 


“For Wisdom dealt with mortal powers, 
Where truth in closest words shall fail, 
When truth embodied in a tale 

Shall enter in at lowly doors.”’ 


But the biographical story drawn from Church his- 
tory has another value besides that of illustrating the 
meaning of the Christian life. It serves to impress upon 
the mind of youth the fact that the Christ whom they 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


are called upon to revere and love and follow is not a 
dead hero-saint, but a living, ever-present Friend and 
Saviour, who through these nineteen hundred years 
has been literally fulfilling his promise made to his 
disciples before his ascension, ‘‘Lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world.”” The agency 
most relied upon by the ancient Hebrews in the re- 
ligious education of their children was the stories of the 
great providential events in their national life and of 
the deeds of their national heroes. It was thus that 
they brought home to each new generation a sense of 
Jehovah’s presence and care and a realization of his 
power and holiness. 

For these reasons I am persuaded that in our evan- 
gelistic work with adolescents large use should be made 
of biographical material drawn from the annals of the 
Christian Church as well as from the Bible. The use 
of such material is rendered all the more feasible by 
the fact that, if the stories of heroic lives and religiously 
significant events are properly presented, boys and 
girls of this age will read them with deep and intense 
interest. 

4. There must be adaptation also in the matter of 
atmosphere and worship. 

(1) Boys and girls of this age are peculiarly responsive 
to an atmosphere of friendliness, brotherhood, and cheer- 
ful comradeship, and everything possible should be 
done in order to create such an atmosphere in the 
Church and in the Sunday school. Many of us will 
recall the feeling of disappointment that came over us 
when we first began to suspect that perhaps the Church 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


was not just the kind of brotherhood we had supposed 
it to be. Is it not possible that the awakening of such 
a suspicion marks the beginning, in many cases, of the 
alienation of our boys and girls from the Church? 
At any rate, friendliness and mutual care and considera- 
tion are fundamental characteristics of a true Christian 
brotherhood, and our boys and girls have a right to 
expect that their awakened social natures shall find 
in the Sunday school and the Church an atmosphere 
that answers to their social needs. 

(2) While adolescents are not apt to be demonstrative, 
they are, as a rule, deeply emotional and respond 
readily to all sorts of appeals to worthy sentiment. 
If properly led, therefore, they will enter heartily into 
a service of worship, provided the prayers and songs 
and Scripture readings selected are within the range of 
their comprehension and answer to the real longings 
and aspirations of their hearts. Great care should be 
given, therefore, to planning worship services for pupils 
of this age. It is, of course, impossible, in the brief 
space allotted to me here, to give specific directions. 
Indeed, every one who is responsible for such services 
should not only study the specific needs of his own par- 
ticular group, but should endeavor to qualify himself 
for leading them by seeking such suggestions as may be 
obtained through the reading of magazine articles and 
books on worship and by making sure before entering 
upon the service that he himself is in a thoroughly 
worshipful spirit. Some of the books that might be 
profitably used for this purpose are: Hartshorne, 
‘Manual for Training in Worship’’; Gibson, ‘‘Serv- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





ices of Worship for Boys’’; Weigle and Tweedy, 
“Training the Devotional Life.’ It may be remarked 
in passing, however, that long, desultory talks and ram- 
bling prayers should be studiously avoided, that the 
hymns used should be dignified and should express in 
true poetic form sentiments that naturally appeal to 
the heart of youth, and that the program should be 
arranged with the view of the largest possible participa- 
tion on the part of the pupils. 

5. Intermediate and senior boys and girls will engage 
enthusiastically in promoting the social, educational, 
charitable, and missionary work of the Church, provided 
the nature and meaning of such work is concretely 
and clearly set before them and provided such tasks 
are offered as appeal to their normal interests. In 
most cases it will be best to present to them a 
variety of types of service and allow them to choose, 
under proper guidance, the particular types they will 
undertake. Some of these should always be immediate- 
ly connected with the work of the Church in the local 
community and should be such as involve immediate 
contacts with persons to whom service is to be rendered. 
For suggestions in regard to work for adolescents the 
teacher is referred to ‘‘The Project Principle in Re- 
ligious Education,’”’ Part II, Sections Four, Five, and 
Six, by Shaver, and to ‘‘One Hundred Projects for the 
Church School,’ by Towner. Every teacher of inter- 
mediates and seniors should also keep in constant touch 
with the Department of Missionary Education of our 
General Sunday School Board. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


II, InpIvipDUAL ADAPTATION 


In any intermediate or senior class or department 
there are likely to be pupils of several quite different 
types. For instance, there may be some whose early 
religious education has been partially or totally neg- 
lected; some who have already become in a very real 
and positive sense sinners; some who, while fully pur- 
posing in their hearts to be loyal to Christ, have for 
one cause or another fallen into doubt or into uncer- 
tainty about their religious experiences; and some who, 
having been brought up in the nurture and admonition 
of the Lord, have passed from childhood to adolescence 
without any marked religious crisis. And, besides the 
variations growing out of differences of individuality, 
there will be others occasioned by the stages of develop- 
ment which the pupils have reached. For while, for 
lack of space, I have been compelled to consider early 
and middle adolescents as one group, there are in reality 
striking differences between the boy or girl of thirteen 
and the boy or girl of seventeen, and it is essential that 
these differences shall be taken account of by one who 
would become a successful teacher of youth. That is, 
the teacher must not only seek to acquaint himself with 
the home life, the previous training and habits, and the 
personal peculiarities of each pupil, but must consider 
all of them in relation to the pupil’s age and physical 
and mental development. 

1. If the teacher is to deal wisely with pupils of these 
several types, he must study them individually. To 
this end, he must visit their homes in order that he may 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


get a first-hand acquaintance with the conditions and 
influences under which they have been brought up and 
that he may secure the approval and, if possible, the 
sympathetic codperation of their parents. And he must 
seek so to win the confidence of his pupils and to come 
into such a relation of personal intimacy with them that 
each of them will be willing to talk to him with perfect 
freedom about everything that is of interest to him. 
In this way he ought to be able to acquire such a 
thorough knowledge of the viewpoint, ideals, interests, 
moral status, and individual peculiarities of each mem- 
ber of his class as will enable him to discover the best 
approach to each. And upon the basis of information 
thus gathered he must determine just what modifica- 
tions of his methods are to be made in the case of any 
particular pupil. No definite instruction upon this 
point can be given because of the vast variety in types 
and situations. Success here will depend entirely upon 
the tact and spirit and sympathetic insight of the 
teacher. The teacher who knows and loves his pupils 
and is endowed with a reasonable amount of common 
sense will be able to discover for himself the easy pas- 
sages to their hearts. 

2. While, however, no teacher of youth can succeed 
who does not study them individually and seek to 
adapt his methods to the peculiar needs of each one of 
them, it still remains true that the suggestions offered 
in the first section of this chapter in regard to the way 
in which the teacher is to use the various evangelistic 
agencies are of quite general application. That is, 
with such modifications in methods of handling as in- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


dividual peculiarities may require, the same lesson 
material, the same programs of worship, and the same 
kinds of activity may be used with all of the types 
described in the preceding paragraph. 

(1) Suppose, for instance, you are seeking to awaken 
the religious interest of the neglected youth or to arouse 
the conscience of the indifferent or sinful youth and 
bring him to a saving faith in Christ, what other way 
can you take that is likely to prove so effective as that 
of revealing to him the spirit and ideals of Christ in your 
own life, progressively interpreting to him the personali- 
ty, teachings, and work of Christ through an intelligent- 
ly adapted process of instruction, and deepening and 
vitalizing all impressions by means of a wholesome re- 
ligious atmosphere and wisely directed activities? 

The teacher should pray with expectant faith that, 
as a result of his efforts, every one of his pupils may be 
led to a surrender of his life to Christ, but the time when 
and the circumstances under which the appeal for such 
surrender is to be made should be determined very 
much as in the case of the junior child considered in 
Chapter VII. 

In some instances it will be best to seek for favorable 
opportunities for talking over the matter of beginning 
the Christian life with certain members of the class 
privately and individually and for endeavoring to 
bring them one by one to the point of definite decision. 
There will be other instances in which it may be well 
to make the appeal before the class as a whole, provided 
the session is held in a quiet room where the teacher 
may make sure of a proper atmosphere; and still others 

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in which it may best be made to the entire department 
or before the entire school above the primary grades. 
In the last two cases, it may be well to seek the help of 
the pastor or some one else who thoroughly understands 
the situation and knows how to approach a group of 
boys and girls. While the invitation service is in prog- 
ress the doors of the room should be closed and no 
interruption of any kind should be allowed. 

While the worker with intermediates or seniors should 
studiously avoid suggesting in any way whatsoever 
that his pupils are to postpone their definite entrance 
upon the Christian life to some future time when condi- 
tions may be more favorable, he should carefully plan to 
make the most of special evangelistic seasons in behalf 
of those whom he has failed to bring to positive decision 
in the regular course of his class work. First among 
these in its importance for the special type of work we 
are considering is the annual campaign of evangelism 
in the Sunday school to be considered in a subsequent 
chapter. But it is possible also to make effective use of 
the revival with boys and girls who have reached the 
age of middle adolescence. Two things, however, need 
to be said in this connection: 

(a) If the Sunday school is what it ought to be, it 
will rarely be necessary to wait for the revival to bring 
the pupils who are under its care to a vital personal 
friendship with Christ. The fact that it often is neces- 
sary means that the Sunday school has partially failed 
in its evangelistic task. 

(b) Revival methods need to be employed with great 
care in the case of boys and girls of this age. For one of 

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their common characteristics is a tendency to intense 
emotionalism; and, therefore, since their emotions have 
not yet been brought under the control of the will and 
reason, they may be easily led into emotional excesses 
that are likely to prove injurious to them both physical- 
ly and morally. In certain types such excesses tend to 
break down nervous control and to bring about a state 
of nervous instability, and, in so far as this is the case, 
they weaken the will and debilitate the moral nature. 
In other types they often result in bitter disappoint- 
ment and dangerous reaction. In the introduction to 
a book written by a prominent pastor a few years ago 
the author told how he had been brought to the verge 
of despair and temporarily alienated from the Church 
as a result of just such an adolescent experience. 
Instead, therefore, of subjecting intermediates and 
seniors to the kind of appeals that are often found neces- 
sary in the case of adults, it is better to take advantage 
of the community interest awakened by the revival by 
providing for them special services in which both the 
messages and the worship programs are adapted to 
their needs. And in planning such services it is well 
to remember that, while the youth may be a sinner in 
a much more real sense than is possible in the case of 
the older child, he is still not a sinner in the adult sense. 
For his evil deeds are still much more the results of 
heedlessness, impulsiveness, lack of judgment and self- 
control, and inability to resist temptation than of 
deliberate choice. Furthermore, such sinful habits as 
he may have formed have not yet become fixed, nor has 
he reached such a state of moral blindness as befalls the 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


transgressor in later life. He is much more open, 
therefore, to the gracious appeals that come in the man- 
ner of the still small voice than is the adult sinner, 
and hence in his case the methods which must often be 
employed to awaken the latter and bring him to convic- 
tion and repentance are not required. 

In Chapter VII attention is called to the fact that no 
distinct religious crisis is likely to occur in the life of the 
junior child. It is to be noted here, however, that such 
crises are quite common in the lives of adolescents. 
The moment of decision is often distinctly marked and 
accompanied by deep emotion. Many men and wom- 
en converted in youth continue throughout their lives 
to sing with unabated gladness and gratitude, 


“O happy day that fixed my choice 
On thee, my Saviour and my God!” 


Such sharply marked conversion experiences, however, 
are by no means universal. There are some who come 
into the new experience of trust and peace very much 
as the murky skies and the icy deadness of winter are 
changed to the brightness and warmth of springtime. 
It all depends on the mental and emotional characteris- 
tics of the person involved. The utmost pains should 
be taken, therefore, to keep the youth from associating 
regeneration with some special type of emotional ex- 
perience. We should make clear to him that there is no 
standard type of conversion experience and that his 
quest should be for Christ and not for any kind of 
feeling. In other words, he should be taught that all 
he need concern himself about is the genuineness of his 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


own surrender to Christ and the sincerity of his purpose 
to live in loyal allegiance to Christ, leaving the matter 
of feeling to take care of itself. Peace lies in this direc- 
tion and increasing joy in fellowship with Christ and 
in his service. But when the youth begins to set his 
thoughts on the way he feels, he is almost sure to grow 
morbid and dissatisfied. Digging into one’s feelings is 
like tearing up a flower in order to test the genuineness 
of its perfume and its beauty. When the tearing-up 
process is finished, no flower is left, but only a few brok- 
en petals. 

(2) When we come to consider the case of adolescents 
who began the Christian life in childhood and still 
desire to be loyal in their allegiance to Christ, but who 
for one cause or another have fallen into doubt and 
perplexity, we find that the same general principles as 
to agencies and methods are applicable that are sug- 
gested for use with the group considered above, it being 
still understood that intelligent individual adaptation 
is always necessary. 

There are two general varieties in this group—one 
composed of those who have become perplexed in their 
initial efforts to transform the simple inherited beliefs 
of childhood into the vital convictions of dawning man- 
hood and womanhood; the other composed of those who, 
finding the religious experiences of childhood no longer 
adequate, are inclined to doubt whether or not these 
experiences really possessed any elements of genuine- 
ness. 

(a) There are certain respects in which both of these 
cases require special treatment. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


For instance, a youth belonging to the first group, 
especially in the period of early adolescence, as was 
suggested in Chapter VIII, may often be helped by 
being reminded that his difficulties are partly the result 
of the fact that his experience and intellectual equip- 
ment are not yet sufficient to enable him to grapple 
successfully with the big questions which his newly 
awakened sense of selfhood has thrust upon him and 
that the wise course, therefore, is to hold some of these 
questions in abeyance until he has had time to acquire 
a wider experience and a larger fund of information. 
This does not mean, however, that his difficulties are 
to be treated lightly or that no effort is to be made to 
answer his questions. On the contrary, the teacher 
should in the spirit of sympathetic friendship place 
himself side by side with his pupils and, frankly recog- 
nizing the reality of their problems and the legitimacy 
of their quest for truth, should do his best to help them 
to solve these problems and to find the light after which 
they are groping. This is particularly necessary as the 
pupils advance into middle and later adolescence. 
For, as has already been pointed out, the problems that 
begin to confront them at this stage become both 
larger and more complex, since, in the case of the more 
thoughtful and intelligent among them, they involve the 
necessity of fusing their inherited beliefs and a varied 
assortment of new facts and experiences that are being 
thrust upon them into a unified and consistent whole. 
And while it is still necessary to advise against hasty 
conclusions and to insist upon the time element as an 
essertial factor in the process of reaching satisfactory 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


solutions, it is also necessary that we shall be able to 
lead them step by step into a clearer understanding of 
the reasons why, in spite of all the mystery that sur- 
rounds us and all the unanswerable questions that thrust 
themselves upon us, we still find in the holy Scriptures, 
in the Word made flesh, and in the verities of Christian 
experience a sure foundation for a stable and increasing- 
ly triumphant faith. 

In the case of one belonging to the second group, 
it is well to explain that the fact that the religion of 
his childhood carried with it no profound depth of con- 
viction does not mean that it was not real; that the 
child must necessarily think and feel as a child, but 
that God may be as truly in his life as in the life of an 
older person who knows much more and can reason 
much better. And he ought to be encouraged not to 
despise his earlier religious experience, but to seek by 
prayer and obedience to deepen and enrich it. 

(b) All this, however, should be regarded as only by 
way of supplementing other agencies already described. 
Not many adults, much less boys and girls, reason them- 
selves into a vital faith. For faith, as has already been 
noted, is a vast deal more than mere belief reached 
through logical processes. It is vision. It is soul-atti- 
tude. Itisan immediate experience of spiritual realities. 
It is trust in and friendship witha living Person. There- 
fore, one who would help these distraught and bewil- 
dered young seekers to attain the kind of assurance they 
desire must have something more to offer them than 
proof-texts and syllogisms. The most irresistibly con- 
vincing evidence of Christianity is Christ himself. He 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


is ‘‘the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express 
image of his person.”’ ‘‘He that hath seen me,’’ he said 
to his disciples, ‘‘hath seen the Father also.’”’ And one 
cannot really see God as he is revealed in Jesus and still 
remain in doubt, however many puzzling questions there 
may be that he is, as yet, unable toanswer. Our primary 
effort, therefore, should be through personal influence 
and vital and wisely adapted instruction to bring our 
boys and girls face to face with him as the surest pos- 
sible way of establishing them in the faith and enabling 
them to pass triumphantly through their years of storm 
and stress and ultimately to find the solution of all their 
really vital problems. 

I venture, however, once more to remind the teacher 
that, in order that the revelation of Christ may become 
a vital reality in the life of the youth, he must be given 
opportunities to express his awakening faith in worship 
and service. Worship imparts the warmth of life to 
truth apprehended by the mind, and expression in 
conduct translates it from the abstract into definite and 
concrete experience. Doctor Jacob Gould Schurman, 
in a book written a number of years ago entitled “‘Ag- 
nosticism and Religious Faith,”’ calls attention to the 
fact that men of action are seldom troubled with re- 
ligious doubts. The men who are most apt to become 
skeptical about the fundamental spiritual verities, 
he says, are those who sit down in closed offices and try 
to solve the problems of life by processes of reasoning. 
And his conclusion is that the way to attain religious 
certitude is by doing rather than by logic. This seems 
to be in accord with the teaching of Jesus. “If any 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


man,”’ he says, ‘‘will do his will, he shall know of the 
doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of 
myself.’’ (John 7:17.) Many things that seem vague 
and unreal so long as we simply try to reason them out 
become clear and real when we begin to translate them 
into conduct. And if this be true in the case of mature 
and thoroughly educated men and women, it must be 
doubly true of boys and girls with their meager in- 
formation and experience and their limited capacity 
for abstract thinking. 

We should seek, therefore, to beget an intelligent 
interest on the part of our boys and girls in the great 
enterprises of the Church and to give them a place in 
its programs of activity. Our failure at this point has 
been the occasion of serious loss to the Church in several 
ways. It has meant failure to utilize the energy and 
enthusiasm of youth in the great task which we have in 
hand. It has resulted in the actual loss of many of our 
youth, who, finding no adequate channels within the 
Church for the expression of their abounding life, have 
turned in other directions and have either entirely 
given up their religious affiliations or have come to re- 
gard them as unimportant. And even in the case of 
those who have continued to maintain a nominal re- 
lation to the Church it has in many instances resulted 
in failure to develop a really virile, capable, and aggres- 
sive type of Christian character. 


III. CourcH MEMBERSHIP. 


Church membership, if its significance is properly 
explained, will mean much more to the adolescent than 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


it can possibly mean to the younger boy or girl. And 
a part of the duty of explaining what it means in the 
way of ennobling fellowship and of participation in 
great undertakings in the name of Christ belongs to 
the Sunday school teacher. By means of such instruc- 
tion he may not only awaken in those who have been 
brought into vital fellowship with Christ a real apprecia- 
tion of the high privilege of being affiliated with those 
who belong to Christ, but may help to prepare them for 
entering into the great fellowship. Suggestions in 
regard to the pastor’s part in this preparation will be 
found in Chapter XII. It may be remarked in passing, 
however, that what is said there about the importance 
of making the act of receiving the young into the 
Church a truly memorable occasion is especially ap- 
plicable in the case of those who are in the period of 
early and middle adolescence. For boys and girls of 
this age are peculiarly responsive both to the profound 
social implications of such a step and to its sacred sym- 
bolic and ceremonial accompaniments. The fine pas- 
sage quoted from Richter, for instance, could have come 
only out of the vivid recollection of an adolescent experi- 
ence, for upon no other would the occasion described 
have made so deep and vivid an impression. 


IV. IN CONCLUSION. 


I cannot close this chapter without once more re- 
minding parents, pastors, and teachers of the immense 
importance of making the most of the unique oppor- 
tunity that comes with that period in the unfolding 
life which we are considering. All the conditions of 

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effective appeal through the revelation of Christ are 
present. Idealism is at its highest, the social nature is 
in the exuberance of its first awakening, and the soul 
is stirred by deep religious longings. But these favor- 
able conditions continue at most for only a few years. 
The high tide of emotional interest, if neglected, soon 
begins to wane; and the gracious occasion is soon gone, 
never to return. How important, therefore, that all 
who are concerned for the future destiny of those who 
are in the midst of this period of spiritual awakening 
and eager yearning shall unite in helping them to find 
in Christ the satisfaction of their deepest needs and in 
seeking so to establish them in their loyalty and devo- 
tion to him that no future temptations can ever lead 
them to doubt him or to forsake him! 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. Try to determine what is meant by the ‘‘General Adapta- 
tion of Evangelistic Agencies” as explained in this chapter. 

2. Consider what this requires (a) in regard to the teacher’s 
personal influence, (db) in regard to the content of instruction, 
(c) in regard to methods of instruction, and (d) as to forms of 
service. 

3. Discuss the meaning of “Individual Adaptation” as here 
explained. 

4. What do the principles set forth require in regard to the 
particular adolescent group with which you are dealing? 

5. What efforts are you making to apply these principles? 

6. Consider what types of conversion experience may be 
expected of adolescents. 

7. Discuss the whole matter of receiving adolescent boys and 
girls into the Church. 


153 


CHAPTER X 
YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTS 


It would be better, if the space at our command 
were sufficient, to study these two groups separately. 
Since, however, the fundamental principles and methods 
which should be adopted in dealing with them are quite 
similar, it is entirely possible to consider them together. 


I. POSSIBILITIES OF THE ORGANIZED CLASS OR DEPART- 
MENT 


There is no other section of the local Church that 
has in it greater possibilities as an evangelistic agency 
than the young people’s or adult class or department. 

1. It furnishes an opportunity for bringing home to 
men and women in a vital way the truth of God’s 
word. And we must never forget that the word itself, 
if properly presented and adequately apprehended, 
has convincing and convicting power. It awakens a 
vivid realization of moral and spiritual need and re- 
veals Christ as the One in whom alone this need may 
be satisfied. ‘‘The entrance of thy word,” sings the 
Psalmist, ‘‘giveth light.’”’ (Ps. 119: 130.) In that 
light we are enabled to see ourselves and to appreciate 
in some measure the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus, and so are led to shame for our shortcomings, to 
penitence for our sins, and to a sense of dependence upon 
God for deliverance. St. Paul tells us that “‘the holy 
Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


through faith which is Christ Jesus’? (2 Tim. 3: 15), 
and that ‘‘the gospel is the power of God unto salvation 
to every one that believeth’’ (Rom. 1: 16). 

It is often assumed that preaching, as the modern 
Church understands it, is almost the only means of ef- 
fectively conveying the messages of the sacred writings 
to the people. Doubtless this assumption is partly 
the result of a misinterpretation of First Corinthians 
1: 21, which in the King James Version reads: ‘‘ For 
after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom 
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of 
preaching to save them that believe.” This transla- 
tion, however, is misleading. The Greek word trans- 
lated ‘‘preaching’’ has no reference whatever to our 
modern custom of taking texts and delivering sermons. 
It means the Christian message and specifically, as the 
connection shows, the message of the cross, without any 
reference whatever to the manner of conveying that 
message to the people. Of course one of the ways of 
doing so, and perhaps in many cases the most effective 
way, is by preaching as we now understand the word; 
but it is not the only way. The message may be taught 
to individuals or small groups as well as proclaimed to 
great congregations. Teaching is as definitely provided 
for in the New Testament as preaching. Our Lord 
himself was the greatest of teachers as well as the great- 
est of preachers and is spoken of much more frequently 
as teacher than as preacher. 

It will be seen upon a moment’s consideration that 
there are many reasons why teaching as well as preach- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


ing should be used as a means for making known the 
message of life. 


(1) It makes possible a vast increase in the evangelis- 
tic force of the Church. The gift of real prophetic 
utterance is quite rare. Only a small per cent of all the 
millions who are members of the Church could by any 
possibility become effective preachers. There are very 
many, however, who, if they should consecrate them- 
selves whole-heartedly to the task, could by study and 
practice become effective teachers. And this means 
that teaching offers a way by which a vast multitude 
of lay members may become useful evangelists. 

(2) While preaching has its decided advantages as 
an evangelistic agency, there are advantages also that 
belong to teaching. 

The teacher may come into a much closer relation 
with the members of his class than it is possible for the 
preacher to gain with the members of his congrega- 
tion, and so may make more effective use of the per- 
sonal appeal. 

Since the group to which the teacher ministers is 
usually much smaller and more homogeneous than that 
to which the preacher appeals, it is possible for him to 
adapt both his message and the manner of presenting 
it to an extent that is usually impossible for the preach- 
er. 

The teacher can present the truth more consecutively 
and systematically than the preacher. 

The teacher, as a rule, uses a textbook and may in 
many cases secure the personal coéperation of his pupils 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





by encouraging them to study for themselves the things 
he wishes them to learn. 

2. The organized class affords a special opportunity 
for making the work of the teacher effective by creating 
a warm atmosphere of Christian brotherhood and by 
opening up channels of service for the members of the 
class. 

3. The organized class affords unusually favorable 
opportunities for personal evangelism, or what Doctor 
H. C. Trumbull speaks of as ‘individual work for 
individuals.” 


IJ. THE TEACHER’S PART 


1. In what is said in the preceding section it is as- 
sumed that the organized class has, as a rule, a rela- 
tively small membership. I am sure that wherever 
capable teachers can be secured this is the best plan. 
An adult or young people’s department may have as 
many members as can be induced to join it, but for 
study it is always best in the former and generally so 
in the latter that the large department should be broken 
up into small groups. For most of the advantages 
mentioned above are very apt to be lost when the class 
is very large. Personal contact between teacher and 
pupils and the special adaptation of material and meth- 
ods become impossible, and the teaching in many cases 
degenerates into a merelectureorlaysermon. This lay 
sermon in most cases is inferior both in content and as to 
effectiveness of presentation to the sermon preached by 
the pastor at the regular hour of Sunday worship, and 
yet not infrequently its most conspicuous result is 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





that it keeps a large number of people away from the 
stated services of the Church. I have known more 
than one large Bible class which, instead of helping the 
pastor, became a positive hindrance to him. If you 
must try to teach a large class, see, at any rate, that 
your work supplements that of your pastor instead of 
making it more difficult. But do not attempt to do so 
if you can possibly help it. For you will be much more 
likely to do really vital work with a small, homogeneous 
group than with a miscellaneous crowd. 

2. In a school in which there is a large young people’s 
or adult department division into classes should be 
upon the basis of interest. The best plan for making 
such a division is for the superintendent and pastor, 
after due consultation with the Department Director 
of Study and Training and the leaders of the organized 
classes, to secure the services of as many teachers as 
may be required, ask each teacher to offer one or more 
courses, and then allow the members of the department 
and classes to select the courses which they wish to take. 
If the school is so small that there can be only one 
young people’s and one adult class, the teacher of each 
should still, after consultation with the members of his 
class and after a careful study of their needs, select 
the course which seems to be best adapted to them. 
In most cases this will be found in either the Uniform 
or Graded Lessons, but there will be other cases in 
which some of the Elective Courses approved by the 
proper authorities of the Church may well be intro- 
duced. 

3. The best course that can be secured, however, 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





will be or no avail unless it is effectively taught, and 
several things are required for effective teaching. 

The teacher must set before him certain definite aims 
determined by a careful study of the personnel of his 
class. The aim in the case of a part of the membership 
will be to lead those composing it into closer fellowship 
with Jesus Christ and to a more adequate understand- 
ing of and devotion to Christian ideals of life and con- 
duct. In the case of others it will be to awaken con- 
viction and to lead to repentance and to faith in Christ 
as a personal Saviour. In both cases the aim is to be 
accomplished by a vital revelation of the person of 
Christ and interpretation of his teachings and work; 
and, whatever lesson courses may be selected, they 
should be used with this end in view. That is, in all 
religious teaching Christ must be central as he is central 
in all the teachings of the Bible. ‘‘ Ye search the Scrip- 
tures,’’ said Jesus to the Pharisees, ‘‘because ye think 
that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they 
which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, 
that ye may have life.”” (John 5: 39.) That is, al- 
though all the Scriptures center about Christ and bear 
witness to him, these men failed in their study of the 
Scriptures to discover him and to find life in him. And 
it is possible for the modern Bible student to make the 
same mistake and for the modern Bible teacher to fail 
so to utilize his Biblical material as to lead his pupils to 
a definite knowledge of Christ and a saving faith in him. 

4. In order that the teacher may avoid this error, it 
will be necessary for him (1) to seek diligently to come 
to a clear understanding of the characteristics and 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





needs of the members of his class, (2) to study carefully 
the whole body of lesson material with these needs 
constantly in mind, and (3) to plan his lessons with a 
view to accomplishing the aims which he has set before 
him. No one can be a successful teacher of religion 
who is not an earnest and intelligent student of the 
Bible and who is unable to come into vital personal 
relation with those whom he seeks to lead in the way of 
life. 

5. The spirit and personality of the teacher count 
for quite as much in the case of a class of young people 
or adults as in the case of a teacher of children or youth. 
It is futile, therefore, to expect to accomplish the aims 
which are set forth above under the leadership of one 
who is not himself deeply in earnest and who is not 
able through the strength of his personality and the 
recognized nobility and integrity of his life to command 
the confidence and respect of his class. This at once 
suggests a possible explanation of the failure of many 
Bible classes to become effective evangelistic agencies 
and the responsibility of pastor and superintendent for 
seeing that men who know neither Christ nor their 
Bibles are not selected as teachers in the Sunday 
school. To be sure, to secure those who are really 
qualified for this high and sacred task is often difficult 
and sometimes impossible; but it is at least question- 
able as to whether or not a class is really worth while 
if it must be taught by a person whose life and attitudes 
misrepresent instead of revealing and commending 
the ideals for which Christianity stands. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





III. THE OFFICERS 


The young people of every Sunday school should be 
organized into a young people’s department and the 
adults into an adult department. In small schools 
there may be but one class in each of these departments. 
In schools in which the enrollment is sufficient there are 
frequently two classes in each, one for men and another 
for women. In large schools there ought, as has already 
been suggested, to be several study groups, the mem- 
bership of each group being determined on the basis of 
community of interest. The purpose of departmental 
organization is to develop a sense of unity and an esprit 
de corps in each group and to enable the various classes 
in each to codperate in the carrying out of common or 
related programs of service. In the small school the 
class and department officers will be practically the 
same; but in the school in which there are two or more 
classes in a department each class should have its own 
organization, with such officers as its work may re- 
quire. For plans of organization for departments and 
classes the reader should write to the General Sunday 
School Board, 810 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. 

There should be the closest possible codperation 
between the officers of each department and the teachers 
and officers of the various classes in the planning and 
carrying out of special evangelistic programs, such as 
the annual evangelistic campaign in the Sunday school 
and such special evangelistic services as may from time 
to time be arranged by the pastor. This codperation 
should include, among other things, the following: 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





(1) Frequent meetings for prayer and consultation. 

(2) Community surveys and definite arrangements 
for bringing in new members and for bringing back 
those who have temporarily dropped out of the school. 

(3) Plans for securing the regular attendance of 
members at the class sessions and at the Church services 
during the special evangelistic season. 

(4) Provision for individual work with individuals 
by such members of the class as may be effectively 
used in this kind of service. A helpful handbook for 
those who wish to prepare themselves for this kind of 
service is ‘Introducing Men to Christ,” by W. D. 
Weatherford. 

(5) Planning the services of worship with a view to 
making them real evangelistic services. 

In a school in which there are two or more classes in 
each department there ought to be, in addition to the 
coéperative programs arranged by the officers and 
teachers of each department, a special program by 
each class in each department. Indeed, a part of the 
work of the officers and teachers of the department 
should be the assignment of specific tasks to the various 
classes that compose it. For there are certain things 
(such as bringing back members who have dropped out, 
securing regularity of attendance, and planning for 
personal efforts by members of the class to lead others 
either in the class or out of it to surrender their lives to 
Christ) that can be done more effectively by the class 
than by the department. In planning for personal 
work of any kind specific tasks should be assigned to 
individual members on the ground of their fitness for 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


approaching those whom the class is seeking to win. 
All details in regard to such work should be arranged by 
a group composed of the teacher, the class officers, and 
such others as the teacher and the president may select. 
The names of those selected for this type of service 
should not, however, be publicly announced. 


IV. Tue Ciass 


In the preceding suggestions it is assumed that in 
each of the groups which we are considering the de- 
partment and the various classes are themselves to be 
organized and conducted as evangelistic agencies. 
That is, the members of the classes who are affiliated 
with the Church should codperate with the officers and 
teachers in all their evangelistic efforts. The following 
may be suggested as some of the ways by which the 
members may help: 

1. By prompt and regular attendance and by intelligent 
attention to the courses of study that are from time to 
time agreed upon. Members of the class who are not 
definitely committed to the Christian life are not likely 
to be profoundly impressed either with the importance 
of the work of the class or with the value of the lessons 
taught from week to week, if those who profess to be 
followers of Christ are manifestly indifferent in regard 
to both. It is not easy to convince a man of the world 
of the religious sincerity of a Church member who is 
not sufficiently interested in the great messages re- 
vealed in the Bible to study one lesson a week. 

2. By joining heartily in the services of worship. The 
most carefully planned service will prove ineffective, 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





if it is not made a medium for expressing the real emo- 
tional attitudes of at least a large proportion of those 
who are present. The effectiveness of public worship 
grows largely out of the fact that it is a united act in 
which the spirit of reverence in each individual is 
recruited and intensified by the common spirit that 
pervades the group as a whole. 

3. By creating an atmosphere of friendliness and 
brotherhood. Men of all types all over the world respond 
to the influence of such an atmosphere. There are more 
hearts than most of us suspect that long for real Chris- 
tain fellowship. Every pastor knows that one of the 
most common complaints against the Church by those 
on the outside is that they find it lacking in the spirit 
of genuine fraternity. There are doubtless cases in 
which apparent failure at this. point is due to difficulties 
not readily to be overcome rather than to indifference. 
It is not easy to know just how far to go in greeting 
strangers in a great congregation on Sunday morning, 
and, besides, there are many sincerely devout people 
who do not believe that the hour of worship should 
close with a season of miscellaneous greeting and con- 
versation in the house of prayer. None of these difficul- 
ties exists, however, in the case of the organized class. 
The group is relatively small, and it is possible for the 
members to come into intimate personal relations one 
with another. Moreover, since there are generally 
separate classes for men and women, the social distinc- 
tions that often prove embarrassing in mixed groups 
may, under proper leadership, be entirely eliminated. 
We have known organized classes in which day laborers, 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


merchants, bankers, and professional men of various 
types mingled together in the finest spirit of Christian 
brotherhood and without embarrassment or restraint. 

Manifestly such a situation furnishes the most favora- 
ble conditions for effective teaching and for personal 
evangelism. To create such a situation, therefore, 
should be the constant aim of the leaders in every young 
people’s and every adult department. The task, in 
many cases, will be difficult and will require patient 
persistence in prayer and in teaching and guidance. 
For we may as well frankly face the fact that not in- 
frequently the same social prejudices and the same kind 
of snobbery exist in the Church that are found on the 
outside and that many lay members of the Church 
recognize no obligation on their part to engage in per- 
sonal evangelism. Where such conditions are found to 
exist, the department and class leaders must, as a matter 
of first importance, unite with the pastor in continuous 
efforts to awaken in the members a true spirit of Chris- 
tian brotherhood and to bring them to a realization 
of the fact that the Great Commission was given, not 
to the apostles alone, but to the whole body of believers, 
and that it is the duty of every man who knows Christ 
to seek to lead others into the fellowship of the faith. 
And along with this process of awakening and of in- 
struction in Christian duty there should go a definite 
program of training designed to fit those who show 
themselves ready to respond to the divine call for this 
special type of service. 

4. By engaging in types of service in which the entire 
membership of the class may take part. Any wide-awake 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





class may undertake worthy tasks of various kinds that 
will command the interest of the unconverted as well 
as of those who are definitely committed to the Chris- 
tian life. In some cases it may be a community enter- 
prise such as helping to provide for the needs of some 
local benevolent institution. In others it may mean 
participation in the support of some institution be- 
longing to the Church that is doing a kind of work 
that will appeal to almost any reasonably intelligent 
and well-meaning man or woman. I chance to be 
acquainted with one class that has aroused an enthusias- 
tic interest in almost its entire membership in a mission 
school that is offering exceptional educational oppor- 
tunities to a large number of boys and girls who other- 
wise would of necessity grow up in ignorance. Where 
such work is undertaken, regular reports in regard to 
what is being accomplished should be made to the class. 
Besides class enterprises, congenial tasks may often 
be assigned to individuals or to small groups. 

The significance of all this in evangelistic effort has 
already been explained. Truth becomes vital and con- 
vincing when one seriously undertakes to put it into 
practice. Again and again, as I have taught this lesson 
to classes, members have interrupted me to tell of 
cases in which men and women had been led to a saving 
faith in Christ by being engaged in some form of serv- 
ice. Adults as well as children learn by doing. 


V. DECISION 


No definite rule can be laid down as to the time and 
manner of making appeals for definite surrender. 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





In many instances there should be individual ap- 
peals made by members of the class in private. Where 
such an appeal proves effective, announcement of the 
fact should be made at the next class session, in order 
that cordial welcome to the brotherhood of believers 
may be extended to the new convert. 

In any class that is properly conducted and that is 
pervaded by the true evangelistic spirit there will be 
occasions when, after seasons of special prayer and 
preparation, appeals may be made before the depart- 
ment or class asa whole. Such occasions ought to occur 
at frequent intervals during the year and, of course, 
should be confidently expected and provided for during 
seasons of intensive evangelistic effort. 

What was said in regard to the types of conversion 
experience that may be expected of intermediate and 
senior boys and girls is equally applicable in the case 
of young people and adults. Good men whose conver- 
sion was after the manner of that of Saul of Tarsus are 
sometimes inclined to insist that everybody else must 
be converted in the same way. Such insistence, how- 
ever, is likely to mislead and, in some instances, to 
prove seriously hurtful. Those who seek to become 
soul winners cannot too often remind themselves that 
there is no typical emotional experience that accom- 
panies conversion, and that it is always dangerous to 
get the mind of a seeker after God set on attaining a 
certain kind of feeling. It is dangerous, in the first 
place, because it turns his thoughts away from God and 
fixes them upon himself, and, in the second place, be- 
cause a normal person is seldom able to attain any 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


given type of emotion by definitely seeking after it. 
Feeling is simply one of the results of coming into a 
right relation with God, and the intensity of it in any 
given case depends partly on individual temperament 
and partly on the general atmosphere in which the 
final decision is reached. The doctrine of the witness 
of the Spirit has always been central in the teaching 
of Methodism. But the witness of the Spirit must not 
be identified with any special type of emotion. It has 
never been so identified by any of the authoritative 
teachers of Methodism. John Wesley tells about two 
girls whom he examined upon a certain occasion with 
a view to receiving them into the Society. Their 
experiences, he says, were both quite clear. ‘“‘But 
what a contrast,’ he adds, ‘‘between them! Sally 
Blackburn was all calmness; her look, her speech, her 
whole carriage, was as sedate as if she had lived three- 
score years. On the contrary, Peggy was all fire; her 
eyes sparkled, her very features spoke, her whole face 
was alive, and she looked as if she was just ready to 
take wings for heaven.’” Wesley even refused to insist 
that every regenerate man must know that his sins are 
forgiven. ‘‘When, fifty years ago,” he says, ‘‘my broth- 
er Charles and I, in the simplicity of our hearts, taught 
the people that unless they knew their sins were for- 
given they were under the wrath and curse of God, I 
marvel they did not stone us. The Methodists, I 
hope, know better now.’”’ Wesley believed thoroughly 
in the possibility of immediate fellowship with God and 
that the Holy Spirit speaks directly to the hearts of 
men; but he knew that the inner voice may be variously 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


interpreted and that it is even possible for men to fail 
entirely to understand it. While, therefore, he main- 
tained that it is the privilege of every man to attain 
through faith and surrender to God ‘‘the peace that 
passeth understanding,’’ he knew too much about the 
peculiarities of human nature to make any kind of 
feeling the test of a man’s acceptance with God. To 
a good man, who was discouraged because he lacked 
joy, Wesley wrote: ‘You never learned, either from 
my conversation or preaching or writing, that holiness 
consisted in a flow of joy; I constantly told you quite 
the contrary. I told you it was love, the love of God 
and our neighbor, the life of God in the soul of man; 
the mind that was in Christ, enabling us to walk as 
Christ also walked.’’ 

All we need concern ourselves about is that we may 
be able so to reveal Christ to our fellows as to lead them 
to turn away from their sins and in trust and love sur- 
render their lives to him. And we should constantly 
remind those for whose salvation we pray and labor 
that what is required of them is to make sure of their 
attitude toward Christ; and if they still show signs of 
uncertainty, we may direct their attention to some of 
the practical tests that are given in the New Testament. 
Take, for instance, such passages as Matthew 7: 16-20; 
John 13:34, 35; John 15:14; 1 John 3: 14-18. 


VI. JOINING THE CHURCH 


Having led a man to surrender his life to Christ, 
our next step should be to induce him to unite with 
some branch of the Church. For, while joining a 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Church is not necessary to one’s salvation, one who 
declines to become a member of some organized body of 
disciples seldom becomes a vital and useful Christian. 
For such membership involves at least three things, 
each of which has an important bearing upon one’s 
steadfastness and development in Christian character. 
It involves (1) the open and positive committal of one’s 
self to a certain interpretation of the meaning of life 
and to certain definite standards of character and con- 
duct; (2) affiliation with a great body of men and women 
animated by the same spirit and cherishing the same 
ideals and aims; and (3) pledging one’s self to unite 
with others under the guidance and inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit in building the kingdom of God. Such a 
relation, therefore, furnishes the most favorable condi- 
tions for healthy spiritual growth and increasing ef- 
ficiency in service. 

In early Methodism persons desiring to unite with 
the Church were required to go through a period of 
probation before being received into full membership. 
Perhaps it is well that modern Methodists have given 
up this custom. I fear, however, that in doing so they 
have swung to the opposite extreme, and that people 
are now received into the Church with a degree of care- 
lessness and haste which is hardly in keeping with so 
serious and important astep. The old probation system 
was much more than a mere period of testing. It was 
a season of instruction and nurture and training de- 
signed to fit new converts for taking their rightful 
places in the great brotherhood of believers. And I 
believe that in a vast majority of cases it would still 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





be better for the pastor, before receiving them, private- 
ly to talk and pray with those who apply for Church 
membership, and, as far as he finds it necessary, to 
instruct them in regard to the meaning of the vows 
they are to assume and the relationship into which they 
are to enter. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY. 


1. Consider some of the possibilities of the organized depart- 
ment or class as an evangelistic agency. 

2. Do you know of any department or class in which these 
possibilities are being realized? 

3. Discuss the teacher’s part in making the class a successful 
evangelistic agency. Discuss the officers’ part. 

4. How may the class itself help? 

5. Discuss the best ways and occasions for making definite 
appeals for surrender to Christ. 

6. Discuss types of conversion experience. 

7. Discuss the meaning of the witness of the Spirit. 

8. What preparation should be made for receiving young 
people and adults into the Church? 

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CHAPTER XI 
SPECIAL SEASONS OF EVANGELISM 


THE evangelistic work of the Sunday school should 
not be limited to set occasions and special seasons, 
but should continue without interruption throughout 
the entire year. For its aim, as we have agreed, is 
twofold—namely, by a process that is fundamentally 
educational (1) to lead children and youth and men and 
women into vital fellowship through faith with Jesus 
Christ; and (2) to help those who already know and 
love Christ to know him better, grow more like him, 
and serve him more efficiently. It is manifest, there- 
fore, that any cessation in the prosecution of either sec- 
tion of this task must necessarily result in loss. If we 
are seeking through a wise use of the agencies previously 
considered to lead a group of pupils to the point of 
readiness to surrender their lives to Christ, it is folly 
either to work spasmodically or to wait for some set 
time at which the process is expected to culminate. 
On the contrary, our efforts and our prayers should be 
without ceasing, and we should be always on the look- 
out for the opportune moment to bring each one of 
them to a definite decision. And the same kind of 
continuous effort is required for promoting the religious 
development of those who already belong to Christ. 


I. Way SPECIAL SEASONS OF EVANGELISM ARE NEEDED 

But however faithful and diligent the officers and 

teachers of a Sunday school may be, there will be need 

for designated seasons in which special attention shall 

be given to evangelism in the sense of seeking to bring 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


pupils into conscious fellowship with Christ. The rea- 
sons which lie back of this need are quite similar to 
those suggested in explaining in a former chapter the 
place of the revival. They may, therefore, be dealt 
with here very briefly. They grow partly out of our 
common human limitations and partly out of certain 
general conditions which it is impossible greatly to 
change. 

1. In order that evangelistic effort may be most ef- 
fective, it must be shot through with an intensity of 
passion which it is difficult for even the most devoted 
follower of Christ, who must necessarily engage in a 
wide variety of diverting and distracting employments, 
to maintain continuously. This statement is not to be 
construed as suggesting that seasons of coldness and 
indifference are inevitable in the average Christian life. 
One who knows Christ and is a partaker through faith 
of the divine nature will be unceasing in his interest in 
his fellows and in his efforts to bring them to a knowl- 
edge of Christ. And yet it may be possible for him oc- 
casionally so to arrange his affairs as to be able for a 
limited time to give such undivided attention to such 
efforts as will raise his interest to an unusual height of 
emotional fervor. This is perhaps one of the secrets 
of what are spoken of in the Bible as ‘‘seasons of re- 
freshing from the presence of the Lord.” 

2. The special evangelistic season should mean un- 
usual effort as well as unusual zeal. In other words, 
the most effective evangelism calls for an amount of 
personal work which the average Sunday school teacher, 
because of his manifold duties and his physical limita- 

173 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


tions, finds it impossible to undertake for more than a 
few weeks during each year. 

3. While the evangelistic aim, interpreted in the 
broadest sense, should run through all teaching in the 
Sunday school, much material must necessarily be 
used which is only indirectly related to the purpose of 
leading pupils to a positive and definite committal of 
their lives to Christ. Ideally the lessons to be used dur- 
ing a special evangelistic campaign should be selected 
with a view to their particular adaptation to the ends 
which the school is seeking to accomplish. Where 
this is impossible, however, such supplemental material 
should be introduced as will enable the teacher clearly 
and forcefully to present to his pupils the claims of 
Christ upon the individual, what it means to become a 
Christian, and the need for immediate positive decision. 
Such material should, of course, be so graded as to 
meet the needs of pupils of various types and ages. 
That is, in the case of those under thirteen or fourteen 
it should be predominantly positive, consisting mainly 
of such an interpretation of Christ as will awaken 
the faith and love and allegiance of boys and girls. In 
the case of those who are older, there may well be added 
to similar adapted interpretations pictures of the hide- 
ousness and danger of sin and the necessity of repent- 
ance and voluntary surrender to Christ as Lord and 
Saviour. 

II. GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 

The time and length and manner of conducting the 
special evangelistic campaign are to be determined in 
the light of local conditions. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


The following recommendations by the General 
Sunday School Board are especially applicable to town 
and city schools: 

“That three months of the year, or three periods in 
consecutive order, be devoted as follows to evangelism 
in the Sunday school: That the first month or period 
be given to the preparation of the forces, the training 
of teachers and other Sunday school workers in mind 
and spirit for the work of evangelists; that the second 
month or period be given to active evangelism in the 
Sunday school, in the classes, and by personal effort, 
this period culminating with Confession or Decision 
Day; and that the third month or period be given to 
special preparation of pupils for reception into Church 
membership. 

“The Board suggests that the program begin with 
January as the month of the preparation of the forces; 
that February be devoted to the active evangelistic 
campaign, leading up to Decision or Confession Day; 
and that the remainder of the time before Easter be 
used for the careful preparation of those who are to be 
received into Church membership on Easter Sunday. 

“This plan is intended to be suggestive only and is, 
of course, subject to such modifications as regards the 
months indicated and minor details as practical con- 
siderations may demand. However, the three lines of 
emphasis represented by the three periods as indicated 
are regarded as essential to the best and most abiding 
results.” 

In a leaflet entitled “A Practical Plan of Sunday 
School Evangelism’’ Doctor J. W. Shackford, General 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


Secretary of the Sunday School Board, offers the fol- 
lowing suggestions as to the manner of carrying out 
these recommendations: 


“1. Period of Preparation of the Forces.—A 
special season of evangelistic effort with the Sunday 
schools ought not to be entered into without careful 
and prayerful preparation. No school has a right to 
deal with this supremely important work in a hurried 
and incidental fashion. 

“‘If this occasion is to have any deep spiritual signifi- 
cance to the pupils of the school, if the purpose is to 
bring them to Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Friend 
and to encourage and strengthen the faith and love of 
those who already are of the kingdom, then the school, 
with its pastor in the lead and with its entire working 
force, will spare no pains to make ready the conditions 
for an evangelism that is vital, normal, and considerate 
of the religious needs of every pupil in the school. 

“Such preparation cannot be had without paying 
the price. So long as the pastor or teachers think of 
this work other than as of central importance in the 
year’s program of work, so long will other matters 
crowd out the program necessary to prepare the forces 
that are dealing with the young life of the Church. 

‘This program of planning will involve several things 
which may here be enumerated briefly: 


(1) ORGANIZATION 


“Organization involves the definite location of 
responsibility and clearly defined plans of work. At 
the beginning of the campaign there should be ap- 


176 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


pointed a Commttiee on Evangelism. This committee 
should, as a rule, be composed of the pastor, the super- 
intendent, and the superintendents of the organized 
departments of the school above the primary, or in 
schools not departmentally organized, one representa- 
tive teacher of pupils under twelve, one of pupils twelve 
to seventeen, and one of pupils eighteen years old and 
over. The duties of this committee will be to plan and 
promote the program of evangelism in the Sunday 
school and to supervise and stimulate evangelism 
throughout the year. 

“Copies of leaflet studies on evangelism provided 
by the General Sunday School Board should be pro- 
cured in advance with a view to use in connection with 
the prayer and study conferences to follow. A series 
of four or five such meetings will be needed for the most 
thorough preparation both of the teachers and officers 
themselves and of the plans for a vital and thorough- 
going evangelistic effort in the school. Where for any 
reason these study conferences are not held the entire 
series of leaflets should be read by the teachers and 
officers. 


(2) PRAYER AND STUDY CONFERENCES 


‘‘The entire working force of the Sunday school, 
under the leadership of the pastor, will come together in 
a series of midweek meetings for prayer and conference 
regarding all that is involved in this vital program of 
Sunday school evangelism. This will include a con- 
sideration of the essential aims of the Sunday school, 
the meaning of the Christian life, and a study of the 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


religious needs of the pupils both of the classified groups 
that make up the school membership and of the in- 
dividuals that compose the groups. It will involve the 
prayerful consideration of the obligations of the school 
for these pupils, and it will embrace a study of the best 
and most intelligent means of meeting their religious 
needs. It will mean nothing less than an effort to pre- 
pare the officers and teachers of the school to become 
personal evangelists in the best sense. 

‘This series of conferences will afford the pastor his 
supreme opportunity to inspire, to train, and to or- 
ganize the evangelistic forces of the school. Here he 
will make his officers and teachers understand that he 
relies upon them as coevangelists with himself in this 
undertaking. Out of his own experience he will help 
them to learn how to become effective evangelists. 

“Above all, he will lead them in heart-searching 
prayer that they, as living witnesses to the truth, 
may guide aright the feet of the young. He will lead 
them in intercessory prayer that each member of the 
school may come into the fellowship of Christ and that 
none who is his may fall away. 


(3) DISCOVERING THE SITUATION 


‘During this period of preparation there should be 
prepared a careful report on the religious needs of the 
pupils in all the classes above the primary. These 
reports should be in the hands of the pastor and the 
committee before the close of the first period. They 
will help to bring to the entire group a concrete and 
definite indication of the scope of the field of immediate 

178 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


responsibility and will suggest where the emphasis needs 
to be laid and what the wise approach is in each in- 
stance.* 


(4) PLANNING THE CAMPAIGN 


‘“‘As the period of preparation draws to a close, the 
Committee on Evangelism should be prepared to sub- 
mit a well-thought-out plan for a four weeks’ campaign 
of evangelism in the Sunday school. The plan should 
be submitted to the whole body of teachers and officers 
for discussion and for modification, if necessary. The 
committee should be ready to make announcement of 
the complete plan by the opening of the second period, 
the period of active personal and class evangelism. 

“*2. Period of Active Evangelism in the Sunday School. 
—It is proposed that the month of February be de- 
voted, in special effort in the classes and through per- 
sonal interviews, to emphasizing the supremacy of 
Christ for every life and to helping members of the 
school who have not already entered into the experi- 
ence of the Christian life to do so at this time. This 
will be an occasion for the studying of each individual 
member of the school with a view to giving each just 
the help needed—to encouraging the pupils who are 
of the kingdom, to strengthening the weak, to lifting up 
the fallen, and to seeking and saving those that are lost. 
It will be a time of personal evangelism of the best sort, 
and all true evangelism is largely personal. It implies 
dealing face to face with each individual and helping 


*For Report Cards write to the General Sunday School Board, 
810 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. 
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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


each in his relations to God. Both in the class and 
through private interviews there will be opportunities 
for direct sympathetic personal approach. 


(1) COMMITTEES IN THE CLASSES 


““A committee on personal evangelism should be 
appointed in each class of adults and of young people 
wherever a wise committee of earnest Christian workers 
is available. Usually the teacher should be the chair- 
man of the committee. In any case, the teacher will 
keep in close touch with the committee and will actively 
assist in its work. These committees will undertake 
through personal work to lead their fellow class mem- 
bers into a definite religious experience through the 
acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Every 
member of the class who is not known to be a Christian 
should be interviewed by some earnest member of the 
class, in each case by the one who is best suited to make 
the approach. 

‘Also in the Senior Department a committee will 
be appointed in each class where, in the judgment of 
the teacher and the Committee on Evangelism, a suit- 
able committee can be found within the class. The 
work of this group should be under the direct supervi- 
sion and guidance of the teacher. 


(2) THE WORK OF THE TEACHERS 


“During this active campaign the teachers will 
speak to their classes and seek personal interviews with 
their pupils on the subject of the Christian life. The 
wise teacher will make an approach that is tactful, 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


sympathetic, and adapted to the special needs of the 
pupil. In case especially of junior and intermediate 
children the teachers will visit the homes in order to 
assist parents in throwing helpful influences around the 
children, so that their religious quickening and decision 
for Christ may have the fullest significance and the 
most abiding results in their lives. 


(3) COGPERATION OF THE PARENTS 


“The work of Sunday school evangelism will fail in 
large measure if the parents of the children are not 
closely related to this work. Nothing is more important 
in a campaign of this sort than that the parents be 
brought into closest sympathy with the awakening 
religious interests of their children and that they be 
prepared to help them with their counsel and their 
prayers. To this end, both by communications sent to 
the parents and by personal visitation, every effort should 
be made to bring about the fullest codperation in the 
homes. 

(4) THE PASTOR’S ASSISTANCE 


“‘During the campaign, in the departments and class- 
es, or before the entire school where the school assembles 
in one room, the pastor, or some one whom the pastor 
may select as especially qualified, will make brief, 
simple talks on the meaning of the Christian life. In 
these talks earnest emphasis should be laid upon the 
fact that the school desires all its members to have a 
personal, living faith in Christ. 

“The effort should be made to explain very simply 
what it means to be a Christian and what is involved 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


in making public confession of Christ. It should be 
made very clear that there are some who already love 
the Saviour, but who have not yet confessed him public- 
ly; that there may be others who have not given their 
hearts to him, but who ought to do so at this time, and 
that there is no reason to wait for any particular day 
or season. 

“During this campaign the pastor will give re- 
enforcement from the pulpit. He will preach to the 
teachers and working forces in the Church and Sunday 
school. He will deliver at least one sermon to the 
parents which they will be especially invited to hear. 
Not only will he point out the responsibility of the 
parents for leading their children to Christ, but he 
will also help to remove some of the difficulties which 
often exist in the minds of the parents and prevent 
them from encouraging their children in their religious 
life. 

(5) CONTINUED MEETINGS OF WORKERS 


“‘During the campaign there will still be need for 
weekly meetings of officers and teachers, at which there 
should be brief reports of developments and a con- 
sideration of the problems that arise in connection with 
the campaign. It should be remembered that some of 
the teachers will be without experience in trying to do 
the work expected of them. Many of them will meet 
with difficulties that they do not know how to overcome. 
These matters should have careful consideration, and 
help should be given as far as possible in each instance. 
Also reports of encouraging experiences should be made 
for the inspiration that this will give. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


(6) REACHING BEYOND THE SCHOOL 


“The quickened interest in the personal salvation of 
others is apt to enlarge the sense of responsibility of the 
workers in the school for those on the outside as well 
as for those within the school. There are always some 
who, through personal relations with the members of 
the class or because of former membership in the 
school, are more or less a part of that company for 
which the teacher and the class are responsible. In 
this work, therefore, effort should be made to win for 
Christ all those upon whom the school has even an in- 
direct hold.” 

In the southern section of our territory the first part 
of the year will in many cases be found to be quite as 
suitable a time for a special evangelistic season in rural 
communities as in towns and cities. Farther north, 
where the weather is likely to be inclement during the 
winter, it will often be best to select some other season. 
Since there are distinct advantages in a simultaneous 
campaign extending as widely as possible, it might 
be well for each Annual Conference to recommend some 
period to be observed as far as possible by all its rural 
charges. It will generally be found expedient to make 
the campaign in the country considerably shorter than 
the time suggested for town and city. 

Whenever and wherever a special season of evangel- 
ism is observed, it ought to be immediately preceded by 
a systematic effort to bring in new members, to the 
end that as many individuals as possible may be brought 
under its influence. 

183 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


III. DEcIsion Day 


The special season should culminate on a day agreed 
upon and announced several weeks in advance. The 
name most commonly used to designate this occasion 
is ‘Decision Day.’’ For obvious reasons this designa- 
tion is seriously objectionable. ‘‘Confession Day”’ 
has been suggested as a substitute; but the word “‘con- 
fession’’ in ecclesiastical parlance carries with it certain 
associations which make it a bit offensive to the ears of 
Protestant Christians. The name, however, does not 
greatly matter, provided we fully understand for what 
the occasion stands. It should be clearly explained 
that the setting apart of a certain day as marking the 
culmination of the evangelistic campaign does not mean 
either that teachers are to postpone all definite efforts 
to lead their pupils to surrender their lives to Christ or 
that the pupils should postpone their surrender until 
the fixed day arrives. On the contrary, the teachers 
should understand that they are expected to be con- 
stantly praying and working for the salvation of their 
pupils and constantly seeking to impress upon them 
the fact that the time for decision is not to-morrow or 
next week or next month, but this very hour. In other 
words, the day should be thought of by all rather as a 
time when public confession of Christian discipleship 
is to be made than as a time when persons are to be 
urged to accept Christ as Lord and Saviour. 

The work suggested above is all a part of the prepara- 
tion for Decision Day, and throughout its progress 
frequent mention should be made of the occasion in the 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





teachers’ meetings and before the school and the various 
departments and classes, care being taken always to 
guard against such misunderstanding as is referred to 
above. There are other items in the preparation, 
however, which require careful attention. 

1. Full attendance of teachers and pupils. Diligent 
effort should be made to secure a full attendance of 
both teachers and pupils. 

Pastor, superintendent, and other leaders should 
earnestly seek to develop such a spirit in the working 
force of the school as will make it impossible for any 
member of the force to absent himself from the service 
except under conditions that render it impossible for 
him to attend. 

In order to make sure of a full attendance of pupils, 
the codperation of parents, interested members of the 
classes, and members of the congregation should be 
enlisted. Teachers should visit the homes of their 
pupils, explain to the parents the significance of the 
day, and seek to impress them with the importance of 
seeing that their children are present. In departments 
above the junior, pupils who are already Christians 
may not infrequently be charged with the responsibility 
of looking after the attendance of those about whom 
there is doubt. And in many cases members of the 
Church may be found who will volunteer to bring in 
their cars pupils who are so situated that it requires con- 
siderable effort for them to reach the church. 

2. Attendance of parents and other friends. The agen- 
cies suggested above should also be employed for bring- 
ing to the service the parents of the pupils and such 

185 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


other friends from the outside as are within reach. 
The latter will naturally include some who were once 
members of the Sunday school and others who are re- 
lated to it through their family connections or personal 
friendships. Especially important is it, however, to 
secure the attendance of as many of the parents of 
pupils as possible, since their presence will not only 
increase the importance of the occasion in the estima- 
tion of their children, but will, if properly conducted, 
prove a blessing also to the parents themselves. 

3. Program. The program for the day should be 
carefully planned in advance, and both individuals and 
classes should be definitely instructed as to what parts 
they will be expected to take. The planning should 
include the selection and practice of hymns and the 
arrangement of the entire order of service. The follow- 
ing outline is merely suggestive and may be modified 
as conditions require: 

(1) 9:30 to 10:00 A.M. Devotional service in each of 
the several departments or in the school as a whole. 
The utmost care should be taken to see that these serv- 
ices are really devotional. Appropriate hymns with 
which the pupils are familiar should be selected in 
advance, and the prayers should be short and should 
deal directly with the matter that is uppermost in the 
minds of those present. If the service is held for the 
entire school, a brief, simple talk should be made by the 
pastor or superintendent. If separate services are 
held in the various departments, a talk should be made 
in each either by the department superintendent or by 
some teacher selected with a view to his special fitness 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


for the task. At the close of the service or services the 
regular weekly offering should be taken and records of 
attendance made. 

(2) 10:00 to 10:20 a.m. Meeting of the teachers 
with their classes for brief talks in regard to the mean- 
ing of the day. In these talks each teacher should seek 
to explain in terms that are adapted to the under- 
standing and experiences of his pupils what it means to 
be a Christian and why every one should become a 
follower of Jesus. If conditions seem to be propitious, 
it may be well at the close of the service to give an 
opportunity to any one who is ready to do so to make 
a confession of Christ before the class. If cards are 
used, those who accept the invitation and any who have 
already made their decisions but have not announced 
them should be given an opportunity to sign the cards. 
The class session should close with another brief season 
of prayer. 

(3) 10:20 to 10:50 a.m. Public confession service. 
In the small school this service should include the 
entire membership above the Primary Department. 
In the departmentally organized school it will generally 
be found best to hold the confession service for the 
Junior Department apart from the remainder of the 
school. 

The main service should be held in the auditorium, 
the teachers being seated with their respective classes. 
The service should include a number of appropriate 
hymns, a number of brief prayers by persons selected 
and notified in advance and a carefully prepared talk 
of ten or fifteen minutes by the pastor. In this talk 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


the pastor should present once more in fresh and vital 
terms the call of Christ and what this call involves. 
If the pupils have been wisely taught during the pre- 
ceding weeks, there will be no need for the kind of 
emotional appeal that is often found necessary in deal- 
ing with adults. The pastor should keep constantly in 
mind the facts in regard to child life which have been 
presented in previous chapters and should carefully 
avoid any appeal that is based on experiences that are 
necessarily foreign to childhood and youth. The 
young heart, as a rule, is still tender and responsive, 
and all that is needed is such a presentation of Christ 
and his ideal as will answer to the spiritual needs of 
boys and girls, followed by an earnest, simple invitation 
to accept Christ and openly and positively to declare 
their allegiance to him and their purpose to follow and 
serve him. 

After the talk the pastor may ask those who belong 
to Christ and are already members of the Church to 
stand. While these remain standing, an invitation 
may be given to those who have accepted Christ, but 
have not yet united with the Church, to stand with 
them. Those who accept this invitation may then be 
requested to come forward and take their stand about 
the altar, and while they remain in this position those 
who desire to begin the Christian life at once may be 
tenderly urged to come and take their places with them. 
The pastor must be his own judge as to how far this 
appeal is to be pressed and what length of time is to 
be devoted to it. The appeal should be followed by an 
altar service in which prayer is offered for those who 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


have already accepted Christ that they may, like the 
Boy of Nazareth, increase in wisdom and in favor with 
God and man as they increase in stature, and for those 
who have not yet done so that they may now fully 
and completely surrender their hearts to him. Im- 
mediately after this prayer an opportunity should be 
given to such as have made the decision to declare it by 
giving their hands to the pastor. 

The altar service over, the pastor should explain 
briefly why followers of Christ should belong to some 
branch of the Church and should give an opportunity 
to all who have come forward to express their desire to 
unite with the Church. He should explain, however, 
the reasons why they will not be received at once— 
that it will be necessary in the case of the boys and girls 
to consult with their parents and that all will need 
further instruction in regard to the meaning of the 
vows they will be required to assume and the new rela- 
tionship into which they are to enter. 

The service should close with a song in which the 
notes of thanksgiving and gladness and triumph are 
conspicuous. 


IV. AFTER DECISION DAY 


1. The first business of the pastor after Decision Day 
will be to visit the parents of children who have ap- 
plied for membership in the Church and seek, not only 
to gain their consent to the step which their children 
desire to take, but also to enlist their intelligent interest 
and whole-hearted encouragement. In some instances 
opposition, which will require tactful handling, will be 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


encountered. Parents will object to their children 
joining the Church, not because they do not want them 
to be Christians, but because their minds are filled with 
erroneous notions in regard to the religious possibilities 
of childhood, the way in which the religious life of the 
child begins and the process by which the babe in 
Christ may be brought to the fullness of Christian 
manhood or womanhood. A careful rereading of the 
previous chapters of this book will furnish suggestions 
as to how these objections are to be met. In case the 
parents of any child refuse to surrender their objection, 
the utmost pains should be taken to prevent the child 
from becoming discouraged and deciding that it is not 
worth while for him to make further effort to live the 
Christian life. Perhaps it might be well for the pastor 
to tell him that he will enter his name in a book kept 
especially for those who are candidates for Church 
membership and that meanwhile, if he will continue 
to pray for God’s help and to do his best to live as a 
loyal friend of Jesus, he will have a right to partake with 
other Christians of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. 
Such assurances, however, will amount to but little 
unless they are followed by intimate personal attention 
and wise guidance on the part of both pastor and teach- 
er. The situation of the child who finds his sincere re- 
ligious aspirations thwarted by those to whom he has a 
right to look for encouragement and support is ex- 
ceedingly disheartening and calls for the utmost tact 
and sympathy on the part of those who seek to hold 
him steadfast in his purpose. 

2. Having come to an understanding with the parents 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


of the children who wish to be received into the Church, 
the pastor should next address himself to the task of 
preparing applicants of all ages for the step they are 
about to take through a definite course of instruction 
in regard to the meaning of the vows which they are to 
assume and the fellowship into which they are to enter. 
Suggestions in regard to the importance of this prepara- 
tion and what it should include will be given in the next 
chapter. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. Give three reasons why special evangelistic seasons in the 
Sunday school are necessary. 

2. Discuss the program for an evangelistic campaign suggested 
by Doctor Shackford. 

3. What modifications of this program would be required to 
adapt it to your local Church and community? 

4. Discuss the suggestive program for Decision Day and con- 
sider how it might be improved. 

5. How would you deal with parents who objected to their 
children joining the Church on the ground that they were too 
young to understand what they were doing? 

6. How would you deal with a child whose parents refused to 
give their consent to his joining the Church? 


191 


CHAPTER XII 
A COOPERATIVE TASK 


THE task of making a Sunday school an effective 
evangelistic agency is one which calls for intelligent 
and harmonious coéperation on the part of all who are 
related to it. 


I. COOPERATION BETWEEN OFFICERS AND TEACHERS 


There must be codperation between the officers and 
teachers. To the suggestions in regard to plans for 
working together which have been given in previous 
chapters, the following may be added: 

1. They must be ‘‘of one heart and one soul’’ (Acts 
4: 32) and must ‘‘have the mind in them which was 
also in Christ Jesus’’ (Phil. 2: 5-8). That is, they must 
be united in the bonds of Christian brotherhood and 
dominated by the spirit of self-sacrificing service. 
For without such unity of heart and purpose it will 
be impossible for them to create the kind of religious 
atmosphere which is absolutely necessary for the spirit- 
ual awakening and development of boys and girls. 
The officers and teachers of every Sunday school should 
have occasional meetings devoted largely, if not ex- 
clusively, to prayer to the end that they may be able to 
keep ‘‘the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” 
(Eph. 4: 3.) Into these meetings brief seasons of testi- 
mony may occasionally be profitably introduced. Some 
schools have adopted the custom of having the workers 
assemble each Sunday morning in a quiet room for a 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





brief period of worship before going into the school 
session. This has the advantage of putting each one 
into a frame of mind and heart that is in keeping with 
the work of the day. 

The workers must be of one mind also in the sense 
of having a common understanding of the nature and 
a common appreciation of the importance of their 
evangelistic task. Every teacher should think of 
himself as an evangelist and of his work as an adventure 
in the making and training of disciples and should 
“sive diligence to show himself approved unto God, 
a workman needing not to be ashamed.’”’ One half- 
hearted and indifferent teacher may diminish the 
spiritual fervor and hinder the work of an entire group 
of consecrated men and women. 

2. They must, however, think and plan together as 
well as pray together. No Sunday school can be really 
successful without an intelligently conducted Workers’ 
Council, in which matters relating to the work of each 
teacher as well as to the school as a whole are carefully 
considered. The following are some of the matters 
which may be taken up in these meetings: 

(1) Looking after absentees and those who have 
become irregular in their attendance. 

(2) Consideration of the best ways of dealing with 
pupils who are difficult to understand or to manage. 

(3) Exchanges of opinion in regard to helpful articles, 
pamphlets, and books. 

(4) Discussion in regard to pictures and music that 
may be profitably used in the school and in regard to 
the planning of effective devotional services. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


(5) Plans for special seasons and special days, 
such as the revival, the evangelistic campaign, Deci- 
sion Day, Rally Day, etc. 

(6) Plans for community visitation and for visiting 
the homes of pupils. 


II. CoOPERATION BETWEEN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND 
THE HOME 


Frequent references have been made during this 
course of studies to the need for codperation between 
the home and the Sunday school. The matter is of 
sufficient importance, however, to justify further study. 

There was a time when Sunday school workers nafvely 
assumed that they were quite sufficient for the task of 
bringing up boys and girls in the nurture and admoni- 
tion of the Lord without the help of their fathers and 
mothers. No intelligent Sunday school worker to-day, 
however, would think of committing himself to any 
such position. For it is now universally admitted, 
not only that the home may be by far the most effective 
school of religion in the world, but also that without the 
help of the home the work of the Sunday school be- 
comes exceedingly difficult. For the influence of an 
indifferent or irreligious home may effectively counter- 
act all the efforts of the most faithful and consecrated 
group of Sunday school workers. Perhaps the most 
discouraging aspect of our task of evangelism in the 
Sunday school is the decline of home training. I 
read an article a few years ago by an elderly preacher 
in which the author stated that in his boyhood ninety- 
nine per cent of Methodist parents had regular family 

194 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


worship in their homes, but that he had lived to see 
the time when not more than one per cent did so. 
Perhaps the former of these statements may have been 
somewhat exaggerated; and let us hope, at any rate, 
that the percentage mentioned in the latter is too small. 
But that there has been a sad decline in family 
worship during the last fifty years there can be no ques- 
tion. 

These considerations at once suggest that to secure 
the intelligent and faithful codperation of fathers and 
mothers is an important part of the work of the Sunday 
school, and that it is so regarded by our Sunday school 
leaders is made evident by the earnest attention which 
they are giving to the matter. Witness, for instance, 
the organization and development of the Parent- 
Teacher Association in the Sunday school as an integral 
part of the work of our General Sunday School Board. 
One of the leaflets dealing with this Association, which 
is issued by the Board, contains the following introduc- 
tory statement: ; 

“The modern Sunday school is endeavoring to pro- 
mote a systematic and adequate program of religious 
education for the child, the youth, and the adult. 
It is clearly recognized by those who are responsible 
for this program that, no matter how efficient the Sun- 
day school may be, it cannot take the place of the home. 
It is realized also that the best work in the Sunday 
school can be accomplished only when there is the full- 
est understanding and sympathy between the home 
and the Sunday school. There is a mutual need, a 
mutual task, a mutual responsibility. It is necessary 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





that the parents and the teachers shall meet in con- 
ference to talk over the problems facing them and to 
plan how the parents in the home may supplement 
and complete the task of the Sunday school teacher as 
he promotes the program of the Sunday school.’’ 

The means which the Sunday school may employ 
to secure the codperation of the home and to make such 
coéperation increasingly effective may be summarized 
as follows: 

1. I have had occasion again and again to call at- 
tention to the fact that no one can successfully teach a 
Sunday school class who is not acquainted with the 
home life of his pupils, and I have urged this as a reason 
why the teacher should systematically visit their homes. 
There is, however, another reason for his doing so. 
It is very important that the teacher should establish 
relations of personal friendship with the fathers and 
mothers of his pupils in order that he may give them a 
clear understanding of what he is seeking to do for 
their children and may secure their intelligent support. 
The very fact that a child understands that his parents 
are deeply and vitally interested in the work of the 
Sunday school will tend to increase his estimate of its 
value and his interest in and respect for it. Besides 
this, however, parents who, through frequent confer- 
ences with the teachers of their children, come to an 
intelligent understanding of what the Sunday school 
is seeking to accomplish may render invaluable service 
by seeing that their children are regular and prompt in 
their attendance, by assisting them in the preparation 
of their lessons, and by recruiting the work of the school 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


through their personal interest and influence. Every 
Sunday school teacher, therefore, should seek to be- 
come a recognized friend in the homes of all the members 
of his class, and to this end should not only visit these 
homes from time to time for the purpose of talking 
with the parents about their children, but should give 
special attention to them on those occasions when such 
attention will be likely to be especially appreciated, 
such, for instance, as in times of trouble or in times of 
special rejoicing and thanksgiving. 

_ Effective visitation requires a kind of tact which 
every teacher should seek diligently to acquire. It 
must have in it no air of professionalism. If the home 
visited is one of wealth and high social standing, the 
teacher should go without apology, assuming that his 
task is sufficiently dignified and important to command 
the respect of the most cultured. If it is a home of 
poverty, he should enter it without affectation or 
appearance of condescension, seeking to make clear 
the fact that he wishes to be recognized simply as a 
friend who desires for friendship’s sake to become more 
intimately acquainted with both parents and children. 
In these visits the teacher will, of course, talk about 
the plans and work of the Sunday school, the lessons 
which the children are studying, and the activities in 
which he is seeking to engage them. He will not forget 
to mention any good qualities that the children may 
possess or anything in their conduct and deportment 
which is deserving of commendation; and at the same 
time, if there are points at which they are falling short, 
he will seek in a kindly and tactful way to bring them 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


to the attention of the parents and to suggest ways in 
which they may assist in bringing about the improve- 
ments that are desired. 

2. The school should send regular reports to par- 
ents in regard to the attendance and work of their 
children. 

3. Frequent meetings between groups of teachers 
and parents should be held for the discussion of common 
problems and the best ways of solving them. Programs 
for these meetings should be carefully prepared in 
advance and definite assignments made to those who 
are expected to take part in them. 

4, Wherever it is possible, parents’ classes should be 
organized both for Bible study and for the study of 
child nature and child training. 

5. Parents should be definitely informed in regard to 
all special evangelistic efforts in the Sunday school, 
and suggestions should be offered as to how they may 
help in making these efforts effective. 

6. Mention is made above of the work of the Parent- 
Teacher Association. Such an association should, if 
possible, be organized in every congregation. Leaflets 
explaining the various departments of the work of the 
Association and offering suggestions as to methods for 
carrying on this work will be furnished upon applica- 
tion to the General Sunday School Board. By a careful 
study of these leaflets officers and teachers of Sunday 
schools in which Parent-Teacher Associations have not 
been organized may obtain valuable suggestions as to 
how they may keep in close and vital touch with the 
parents of their pupils, to the end that they may aid 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


them in preparing for their sacred responsibility and 
may secure their hearty and intelligent codperation. 

In spite of all that modern writers of neurotic fiction 
say about the increasing desire on the part of parents 
for emancipation from exacting home duties, it is 
quite certain that most parents still love their children 
and desire to see them properly brought up. The 
trouble is, however, that many of them do not realize 
how largely responsible they themselves are for deter- 
mining the future destiny of their children, and many 
of those who have some vague realization of this re- 
sponsibility do not know how to meet it. The task of 
the Sunday school in relation to such parents, there- 
fore, is twofold: First to awaken within them a real 
interest in the religious education of their children, 
and then to help them to make definite and intelligent 
preparation for this sacred task. There will be but 
few instances in which Sunday school pupils drawn 
from homes in which this effort has been successfully 
carried out may not be won to a living faith in Christ 
and brought into fellowship with the Church. 


III. THe ENTIRE CHURCH 


The Sunday school does not belong exclusively to 
the small group of men and women who make up its 
corps of officers and teachers. It is the great organized 
agency of the Church for promoting educational 
evangelism in the broad sense in which the term is used 
in these studies. It deserves, therefore, the united sup- 
port of the entire congregation. 

The Discipline of our Church designates ‘‘the Quar- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





terly Conference of each circuit and station as a Board 
of Managers, having charge of all the Sunday schools 
within its bounds,’’ and makes it “the duty of the 
Quarterly Conference to keep itself informed as to the 
condition and needs of the Sunday schools under its 
care and to see that they are furnished with all necessary 
equipment.”’ If Quarterly Conferences throughout 
the Church should begin generally to take this respon- 
sibility seriously, there would come about a rapid 
improvement in the quality of our Sunday school work. 
For it would not only mean better equipment for Sun- 
day schools in the way of buildings, literature, and other 
needed helps; but would put new heart into officers 
and teachers and beget in both pupils and Church 
members a deeper appreciation of the work which the 
Sunday school is seeking to accomplish. 

The Quarterly Conference, however, should not be 
content with furnishing the Sunday school with ma- 
terial equipment, but should seek also by sympathetic 
codéperation to promote its spiritual objectives. The 
members of the Conference should be members of the 
school and should assist personally in making effective 
its evangelistic ministry. 

Finally the Conference should join heartily with the 
pastor in continuous efforts to bring the entire member- 
ship of the Church to an adequate understanding and 
appreciation of the evangelistic mission of the Sunday 
school and to a common purpose to create an atmos- 
phere that is favorable to the carrying out of a vital 
evangelistic program. In other words, the ideal which 
every congregation should keep constantly before it 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


should be the entire membership focalizing attention 
upon one great central aim. 


IV. THE PLACE OF THE PASTOR 


Every great codperative task must have a unifying 
and directing head. And in the Sunday school this 
head must in most cases be the pastor. There is doubt- 
less an occasional instance in which a layman has suf- 
ficient interest and training and influence in the com- 
munity to enable him largely to relieve the pastor of 
the burden of leadership in the Sunday school. Such 
cases, however, are comparatively rare, and it is not at 
all certain that it is ever best for a pastor to commit to 
other hands, however capable they may be, the entire 
responsibility for the direction of the work of educa- 
tional evangelism in his congregation. What we are 
mainly concerned about here, however, is that vast 
multitude of schools in which there is not likely to be 
any effective leadership if it is not supplied by the pas- 
tor. 

1. The fundamental condition of success in the pas- 
toral leadership of the Sunday school is that the pastor 
himself shall be deeply interested in the work which the 
Sunday school is set to accomplish and that he shall 
be thoroughly familiar with educational principles and 
methods. For he cannot awaken an interest on the part 
of teachers and parents in an undertaking in which he 
himself is not interested, nor can he become the effective 
leader of an enterprise with the scope and aim and de- 
mands of which he is not thoroughly familiar. One 
of the most encouraging facts connected with our 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


present-day Sunday school work is that a large number 
of our pastors are taking our courses in Leadership 
Training and thus seeking to fit themselves for effec- 
tively guiding the work of educational evangelism and 
training in their charges. 

2. The following suggestions may be offered as to 
some of the ways by which the pastor may become an 
influential factor in the development and success of 
his Sunday school: 

(1) He may preach often on some phase of religious 
education. Pastors frequently find it necessary to 
preach on subjects which they know will appeal to 
only a small section of their congregations. But the © 
subject of Christian nurture in its relation to the destiny 
of the individual, the building of the kingdom of God, 
and the preservation and development of civilization, 
if properly presented, will make a well-nigh universal 
appeal. For all right-minded men and women of every 
age and station are interested in children themselves, 
and most of them are interested in preserving for future 
generations the priceless spiritual inheritance which 
has been bequeathed to us through the labors and sacri- 
fices of those who have gone before us. The pastor, 
therefore, who is able to speak with conviction and 
authority can always count on a vital response to any 
message which concerns itself with the saving of civiliza- 
tion by the Christian nurture and training of the young. 

Through these sermons and through private personal 
interviews the pastor should seek to make clear to 
parents their responsibility for the religious training 
of their children. ‘‘Many a parent,” says Doctor J. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


W. Shackford in a leaflet on ‘‘The Home and the Sun- 
day School in Christian Evangelism,” issued by the 
General Sunday School Board, “is utterly ignorant 
as to the extent to which the child’s ideals, sentiments, 
and attitudes are being predetermined without the 
child’s knowledge or choice. Parents talk of the age of 
accountability when the child will make its own deci- 
sions, but they fail to recognize that whenever the child 
shall arrive at that age it will usually find itself already 
in possession of certain very definite religious attitudes, 
habits, and character, which are always in large 
measure, if not entirely, the result of the decisions 
which others have made for him.’’ That is, the child’s 
choices are largely predetermined for him by the in- 
fluences brought to bear upon his life in the home. 
There are some homes so vitally Christian that it is 
almost certain that children who grow up in them will 
from the beginning give their hearts in love and trust 
to Jesus Christ. In other words, they are really 
“brought up in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord,” and are ready to be formally recognized as 
members of the Church as soon as they are able to 
understand what Church membership means. 

(2) In the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, it is 
the pastor’s duty to nominate to the Quarterly Con- 
ference the person who is to act as Sunday school 
superintendent, and there is no way in which he can 
contribute more directly to the evangelistic success of 
the school than by giving to this duty the most prayer- 
ful and serious attention. No Sunday school with an 
indifferent and inefficient superintendent can be really 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


effective in making and training disciples. On the 
other hand, a Sunday school with the most meager 
equipment may accomplish wonders under the guidance 
of a superintendent who is studious, open-minded, 
and vitally religious and who has the gift of leadership, 
ability to work harmoniously with others, and real love 
for and interest in the task in which he is engaged. 
If no such person can be found among the adult mem- 
bers of the congregation, the pastor should seek to 
discover some young man who has in him the making 
of a successful superintendent and, having found him, 
should proceed as rapidly as possible to train him for 
the work. 

(3) The pastor should seek to maintain the closest 
possible intimacy with his staff of Sunday school officers 
and teachers. He should attend and take part in the 
deliberations of the Workers’ Council, not only that 
he may keep the Council from making mistakes, but 
also that he may aid in the development of plans for 
larger and more effective work. 

He should seek to inspire the officers and teachers 
with the evangelistic passion, to bring them to an in- 
creasing understanding and appreciation of the place 
of religious education in the evangelistic program of the 
Church, to awaken them to an adequate realization of 
the need for definite preparation for their work, and to 
make it possible for them to acquire such preparation. 

(4) He should seek to enlist the intelligent interest 
of the Quarterly Conference in the Sunday school, 
to the end that its members may be willing, not only 
to encourage the school by regular attendance upon its 

204 


EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


sessions and personal support of its program, but also 
to make such provision for its physical equipment 
and financial support as its needs may require. 

(5) In order that his interest may be manifest to 
the pupils as well as to their teachers, he should as 
often as possible attend the sessions of the school or, 
if it is departmentally organized, visit the various de- 
partments. I heard recently of a little girl who, when 
requested by the superintendent of her department to 
attend the Sunday morning service of the Church, 
replied that, since her pastor was not interested in her 
services, she did not see why she should be interested 
in his. Of course Sunday school teachers should see 
to it that the members of their classes do not fall into 
the error of assuming that the Sunday school is a kind 
of children’s Church and that the older people’s Church is 
an altogether different thing, in which they need feel 
no vital concern. It will be much easier to do this, 
however, if the children are assured of the pastor’s 
interest in them and in the work which they and their 
teachers are seeking to do. 

(6) The pastor should see that the special evangelistic 
season recommended by the General Sunday School 
Board, or some other like period that he may find it 
expedient to select, is faithfully and diligently and intel- 
ligently observed. To this end he should call his 
officers and teachers together in advance for the study 
of plans and for such special organization as the work 
in hand may require. And especially should he see 
that the leaflet literature provided by the General 
Sunday School Board is not only put into the hands of 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


his officers and teachers, but also that they give to it 
such careful study as will enable them to incorporate 
its suggestions in their working program. During 
this entire special season the pastor should confer fre- 
quently with his officers and teachers in regard to all 
the details of the work, in order that he may have a 
perfect understanding of all that is done and may make 
sure that nothing that is essential is overlooked. 

3. Attention has already been called to the fact that 
no group of persons, either old or young, should be 
received into the Church without definite instruction 
in regard to the meaning of the vows they are to assume 
and the nature and purpose of the institution with 
which they are to become associated. In this work of 
preparation the Sunday school teacher should be able 
to render valuable assistance. For reasons which are 
quite apparent, however, a large part of this responsi- 
bility should be undertaken by the pastor. In the first 
place, it will generally be found that he is the only per- 
son at hand who is thoroughly qualified for the task; 
but, even if this were not the case, it would still be 
unwise for a pastor to receive a group of persons, and 
especially a group of boys and girls, into the Church 
without first seeking through intimate personal associa- 
tion and conversation with them so to win their respect 
and confidence and affection as to enable them to realize 
in some measure the meaning of their relation to him as 
their spiritual leader and counselor. 

The process of preparation should continue through 
at least a month, two hours being devoted to it each 
week. One of the much-needed additions to our educa- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





tional literature is a graded series of guides to be used 
by pastors in training classes for Church membership. 
In the absence of such helps, it will devolve upon the 
pastor to prepare his own material. In order to do this, 
he should divide those who are to be received into three 
groups, classified according to age. The first group 
should comprise those under thirteen, the second those 
between fourteen and seventeen, and the third those 
over seventeen. The instruction given to each group 
will be determined both as to form and content by the 
capacities and needs of those composing it. In the case 
of children and youth it should be simple and concrete, 
both doctrines and practical precepts being illustrated 
and enforced by facts drawn from the history of the 
Church and the lives of distinguished religious leaders. 

The vows of Church membership and the General 
Rules should be taken as the basis of instruction.* 
The former should be regarded as including the bap- 
tismal covenants, since they require the reaffirmation 
of these covenants. While it will be necessary in the 
instruction given to call attention to types of conduct 
that are inconsistent with the Christian ideal of living, 
the teaching should be predominantly positive. That 
is, it should interpret religion in terms of privilege and 
of opportunity for service rather than in terms of 
negation. 

By way of giving some idea of what I have in mind, 


*It is understood that in baptizing children and receiving 
them into the Church the pastor will use the ritual prepared 
specifically for this purpose and that upon this he will base his 
preparatory instruction. 


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let us assume that the pastor is undertaking the prepa- 
ration of a group of junior boys and girls. His first 
step will, of course, be to get on the best possible terms 
with them. Too much care cannot be taken at this 
point. If the children are constrained and ill at ease in 
the pastor’s presence, he will make but little progress 
in winning their interest and attention. He should 
seek, therefore, to make them feel that he is simply 
an older friend who really understands and cares for 
them and desires to help them to a richer and more use- 
ful and joyous life. Intimate personal conversation 
about things in which children are interested should 
have a large place in the entire training process. 
Through such heart-to-heart fellowship the pastor 
should seek to remove the embarrassment which boys 
and girls too often feel in talking with their elders about 
religion and to help them to understand that nothing 
is more natural and beautiful than that those who are 
just entering upon the great adventure of life should 
take Jesus as their Friend and Companion and should 
pledge to him their devoted and loyal service. 

Having come to an understanding with the class, 
the pastor may well begin his course of instruction 
with a series of simple talks designed to deepen and 
vitalize the impressions made upon them in the previous 
educational process. In these conversations he should 
seek to draw from the children what they understand 
by faith and prayer and loyalty to Christ and to correct 
any misapprehensions into which they may have fallen. 
Of course this instruction should be as simple and 
concrete as it can possibly be made, since doctrines 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





that cannot be illustrated in terms of real life have but 
little meaning for boys and girls. By such a series of 
intimate conversations the pastor may make clear to 
the children what is involved in the first question which 
they will be required to answer when they are received 
into the Church and may thus enable them to answer 
sincerely and intelligently. 

The series of talks about personal religion may be 
followed by a series of similarly adapted talks about the 
Church and its work. These should include a simple 
explanation of the big world-wide task to which the 
Church is committed and should interpret Church 
membership in terms of vital participation in this task. 
The series may well be concluded with a brief account 
of the origin and history of our own denomination, 
of the lives of a few of its conspicuous leaders, and of 
some of the important things it is now seeking to ac- 
complish. By this instruction the class may be pre- 
pared intelligently to assume the second of the vows of 
Church membership. 

It may be that in the course of these conversations 
the pastor will discover that some of the children, be- 
cause of inadequate previous training, are not really 
ready to be received into the Church. In such cases, 
unless he finds it possible to awaken in them a deeper 
and more vital interest, it may be well for him to explain 
to them why he deems it necessary for them to con- 
tinue in the class for a while longer. Of course children 
whose reception is thus delayed will need to be looked 
after carefully and sympathetically by both pastor 
and Sunday school teachers. For, while it is necessary 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


that children should clearly understand that joining 
the Church is a step which must be taken seriously 
and intelligently, it is also necessary to make sure that 
nothing is done that will tend to discourage those whose 
reception it may be found expedient to postpone. 

Preparatory instruction for young people and adults 
will, of course, be adapted both as to content and 
method of presentation to their larger capacities and 
differing needs. It should include in a more fully 
elaborated form everything in regard to personal and 
practical religion that is included in the instruction 
of children; but it should also include such information 
in regard to matters of doctrine, polity, and history 
as are necessary for intelligent membership in the de- 
nomination into which the applicants are to be re- 
ceived. Perhaps it will be found best in most cases to 
deal with these older persons privately and individually 
rather than in groups. 

Of course the success of the pastor in such an under- 
taking as is here suggested will depend upon his ability 
to draw vivid pictures, in terms that the child can com- 
prehend, of characters, actions, and events that appeal 
to the normal interests of childhood. Any pastor, 
however, may acquire this ability, provided he is suf- 
ficiently impressed with the importance of the work to 
be willing thoroughly to familiarize himself with the 
material which he is to present and with the capacities 
and interests of those with whom he is to deal. 

Courses for youth and for adults should cover the 
same general ground with such changes in viewpoint 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





and teaching methods as the needs of the respective 
groups may require. 

4, The training process should culminate on a given 
day set apart for receiving the applicants into the 
Church, and for this occasion the most careful prepara- 
tion should be made. The whole order of service, 
including hymns, prayers, and Scripture readings, 
should be planned in advance and should be arranged 
with the view to enabling the children to take part in 
it. If the classes are sufficiently large, it is best to 
receive the juniors in one group, the intermediates and 
seniors in another, and the young people and adults in 
still another. After the several groups have been re- 
ceived, the holy communion should be administered, 
and a brief period should be given at the close of the 
service to an informal welcome to all on the part of the 
Church. Such a service following such a course of 
preparation may become a mountain top experience 
which the child or youth will recall with joy and grati- 
tude throughout his entire life. 

In a striking passage in one of his works Jean Paul 
Richter describes his first Lord’s Supper, which in the 
Lutheran Church corresponds with our ceremony of 
receiving children into Church membership. He tells 
about the previous course of preparation and especially 
about the last meeting on the Saturday evening preced- 
ing the sacred service, when the warm tears which his 
beloved pastor shed mingled with those of the boys 
and girls as he prayed with them and for them. 

“On this evening,” he says, ‘there came a mild, 
light, clear heaven of peace over my soul, an unutterable 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


blessedness in feeling myself quite clean, purified, and 
freed from sin; in having made peace with God and man, 
a joyful far-reaching peace, and still, from these evening 
hours of mild and warm soul rest, I looked onward to 
the heavenly enthusiasm and rapture at the altar next 
morning. 

‘‘On Sunday morning the boys and girls, adorned 
for the sacrificial altar, met at the parsonage for the 
solemn entrance into the church amid singing and bell- 
ringing. . . . All this became for the young soul 
a powerful breeze in its outspread wings, which were 
already raised and in motion. Even during the long 
sermon the heart expanded with its fire, and inward 
struggles were carried on against all thoughts which 
were worldly or not sufficiently holy. 

“At length I received the bread from my father and 
the cup from my purely loved teacher, but the ceremony 
did not receive any additional value from the thought 
of what these two were to me; my heart and mind and 
soul were devoted alone to heaven, to happiness, and 
to the reception of the Most Holy, which was to unite 
itself with my being, and my rapture rose to a physical 
lightning feeling of miraculous union. 

“‘T thus left the altar with a clear blue infinite heaven 
in my heart; this heaven revealed itself to me by an 
unlimited, stainless, tender love which I now felt for 
all, all mankind. To this day I have preserved within 
my heart with loving and youthful freshness the re- 
membrance of the happiness when I looked on the 
Church members with love, and took them all to my 
innermost heart. 


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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


‘The whole earth remained for me throughout the 
day an unlimited love repast, and the whole tissue 
and web of life appeared to me an ethereal harp played 
by the breath of love.”’ 

Happy the man who amid the tumult and strife and 
temptations of later years can look back upon such an 
exalted experience as marking his formal entrance into 
the great brotherhood of believers! To be sure the 
emotional accompaniments of the occasion will neces- 
sarily vary with different individual types, but the 
ceremony of receiving any group of boys and girls into 
the Church may be so shot through with spiritual 
significance as to leave upon the soul even of the most 
prosaic child an impression which time can never 
erase. 

5. I realize that the successful carrying out of such a 
program as I have here outlined will make large de- 
mands upon the time and strength of the pastor, al- 
ready burdened by a distracting multiplicity of calls 
for all kinds of service. But I still raise the question 
as to whether or not his special work with the childhood 
and youth of his congregation is not one of the things 
which he cannot afford to omit, whatever else he may 
find it necessary to leave undone. For it is among these 
that he will find his chief opportunity for making real 
disciples and developing a nobler and more efficient type 
of Christian manhood and womanhood. Any one who 
will leave off theorizing and come face to face with the 
facts must see that under present conditions there is 
no hope for bringing about the triumph of the kingdom 
of God in any other direction. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





The pastor, to be sure, should seek to become an 
effective preacher, but the pastor who believes that he 
can build up a really strong and vital Church through 
preaching alone and preaching that is directed mainly 
to adults is simply indulging in vain imaginings. For 
if the pastor is so intent upon feeding and tending 
the sheep that he neglects to feed and shepherd the 
lambs, there is danger that the time will come when he 
will find his flock sadly depleted in strength as well as 
in numbers. 


V. IN CONCLUSION 


In closing these studies I may be permitted once 
more to call attention to the fact that the responsibility 
of the Church does not cease when the child or youth 
or even the adult has been led to a definite surrender to 
Christ and welcomed into the Christian fellowship. 
The making of disciples is to be followed by teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has com- 
manded. And this involves a continuous and wisely 
adapted process both of instruction and training, to the 
end that those who have entered upon the Christian life 
may attain an ever-increasing intimacy with Christ, an 
ever-increasing likeness to Christ, an ever-increasing 
understanding of the principles proclaimed by Christ, 
and an ever-increasing ability to apply these principles 
in their social relations. In other words, it is the busi- 
ness of the Church to supply the conditions which will 
enable its new recruits, not only to come as individuals 
‘‘unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ,” but also to attain the highest social efficiency. 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 





This brings us back to the thought with which our 
studies began. Christianity regards the individual life 
as possessing infinite value and makes full provision 
for its emancipation and development. But it recog- 
nizes the fact that the individual can come to perfec- 
tion only in a perfect social environment, and therefore 
charges the Church with the duty of saving, not the 
individual only, but society also. It is her business to 
bring about the realization of that divine event for 
which our Lord taught his disciples to pray: ‘‘Thy 
kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so 
on earth.’ And this can be accomplished only by 
such a program of evangelism as I have sought to 
outline in these studies, a program which seeks to 
enlist the entire membership in the task of winning 
disciples, instructing them in the teachings of Christ, 
and training them in the application of these teachings 
to the concrete problems of individual and social life. 

In this program the Church is to make use of all 
available agencies and methods and is to seek to reach 
people of all ages and conditions. Since, however, 
the method that lends itself to the widest application 
is the method of educational evangelism and the class 
that is most easily accessible is the childhood and youth 
of the world, it is plainly the part of wisdom for the 
Church to give to the evangelization of the young, 
through a wisely planned and intelligently directed 
process of religious education, that place of primacy 
in its work which its importance demands. Perhaps 
the fact that she has hitherto failed to do so may 
partly account for the threatened collapse of our civili- 

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EVANGELISM IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


zation which we witness to-day. It will furnish a 
measure of compensation, however, for all that we 
have suffered and are still suffering, if our bitter ex- 
periences shall serve to turn our attention to the latent 
possibilities of childhood and the means through which 
these possibilities may be brought to concrete realiza- 
tion. For in this direction lies hope for the Church 
and for the world. Out of the plastic material furnished 
us in the boys and girls who are playing and dreaming 
about us we may by the help of the Holy Spirit raise 
up a generation of men and women who will really 
represent Christ in the world and will usher in a civiliza- 
tion that will be dominated by the spirit of Christ, 
the spirit of brotherhood and service, and that will seek 
to regulate its social, business, and political life and 
its international relations by the principles of Christ. 
Thus and thus only may the bewildering problems that 
confront us to-day be solved. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 


1. Why is the task of educational evangelism necessarily a 
codperative task? 

2. Make an outline of all the ways you can think of in which 
officers and teachers may codperate. 

3. Make a similar outline of ways of codperation between 
the Sunday school and the home. 

4, What relation has the Quarterly Conference to the evan- 
gelistic work of the Sunday school? 

5. What place should the pastor have in it? 

6. Do you agree that people should be carefully trained before 
being received into the Church? Give the reason for your 
answer. 

7. How far do you agree with the statements contained in 
the last section of this chapter? Give your reasons. 


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